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jessicalynnhepner · 3 years

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What Every Parent Needs to Know About Child Sex Trafficking

For most police officers, this scene is a familiar one—a young kid gets mixed up with the wrong person and finds him or herself on the wrong side of the law. In virtually every case, this would be the end of the story. The young girl would get a slap on the wrist and be released into her parents’ custody where they could, presumably, set her straight. And, at this point in our story, Officer Scott was prepared to do just that—to trust the overwhelming testimony of prior experience and process this girl out so that he could get on with his shift. But, something was different this time… Discerning the SignsAs Officer Scott sits down to file his paperwork, he’s reminded of last Tuesday’s roll call. His Sergeant, having recently attended a training seminar on human trafficking, used that day to teach his officers how to identify potential trafficking situations. All of a sudden, alarm bells start going off in Scott’s mind: The Fear — Sure, a kid’s going to be afraid of the consequences. But, this girl seems to fear for her physical safety. She’s acting like there’s something worse waiting for her than an angry mom and dad at home. The Stolen Merchandise – Why did she need a Red Bull and a pack of condoms? Scott recalled that traffickers use starvation to control their victims. Usually, their only choice is to steal the bare necessities. The Boyfriend – Per the owner’s description, this guy was at least 10 years older than she. What were they doing there together in the first place? A New ApproachWith these things in mind, Scott calmly invites the young lady out of holding and brings her to a quieter part of the station, away from prying eyes and menacing glances. She looks cold, so Scott hands her a sweatshirt. As he does, he notices a small tattoo of a crown with the name ‘Hugo’ scrawled beneath it—likely a brand to show who ‘she belongs to.’ They start to chat. This time, he speaks less like a cop and more like a friend. Clearly, she hasn’t had anything to eat for quite a while. Moments later, a female officer appears with a bag from McDonald’s. The three make their way to a private lounge. As they talk, the girl lets her guard down. Scott listens as she describes her broken home life, struggles with friends at school, and her constant search for belonging. All the while, her phone continues to buzz. “Your boyfriend?” “Yes. He just wants to make sure I’m ok.” He really is a great guy, she explains. He’s been there for her when her parents weren’t. He shows her the affection and attention she needs. She feels protected. He loves her……only, sometimes he makes her do things—things she would ordinarily never do. TrustHaving earned at least a glimmer of trust, Scott asks if she would slide her phone over. Reluctantly, she does, and he begins to scroll through the text messages. Wisely, Scott checks his emotions before he begins to read. It doesn’t take him long to realize these are not the supportive words of a loving boyfriend. No, they’re the verbal assaults of a degenerate thug bent on belittling her into submission. Scott does his best to hide his disgust as he reads about threatened consequences for ‘missed quotas.’ Horrified, he sees insults that no human being should ever have to endure, capped off by threats against her little sister for talking to the cops. Officer Scott thanks the young woman for her trust and politely excuses himself to make a call. He can read the writing on the wall: this girl is clearly a victim of trafficking. She needs someone with much more experience than him to help regain her freedom. He picks up the phone, dials his Sergeant, and together, they get to work. What Made the Difference?This story, though generalized in some ways, is rooted in the accounts we hear from police officers every day. The first part of the story is common enough. But, what about the second when, in Scott’s eyes, the girl goes from ‘shoplifter’ to ‘trafficking victim’? Not so much. So, how do we get from A to B? How do we help police officers learn

to look at each ‘punk kid’ as a potential victim, to ask deeper questions, and find the real story lies beneath the surface? Just as in Officer Scott’s story, that turning point comes when an officer recognizes the signs, trusts his or her gut, and decides to unravel that thread. It all starts with that one officer—a soldier on the front lines of the underground battle to set captives free. This can only happen when officials at every level of law enforcement learn to detect the signs and receive the tools they need to bring trafficking victims out of the cruel darkness and into the liberating light of day. National Human Trafficking Law Enforcement Training ProgramAt ERASE, one of the most impactful things we do is train police departments so that they produce more officers like the one in this story. It’s our mission to educate officers to detect the warning signs, identify potential victims, and safely lead them to freedom. Your donations make this possible. Source Child Sex Trafficking-Not My Child Mom shakes her head and Dad raises his voice. Their 16-year old daughter storms up the stairs. As the bedroom door slams, she collapses on the bed with phone in hand. She’s ready to vent her frustrations one status update at a time. With every angst-laden tap of the keyboard, she lays bare her soul: “Nobody here gets me.” “No one understands!” “I feel unloved.” 📷An hour later, a boy from the next town over reaches out. She doesn’t know him, but they’ve got a few mutual friends, so it’s probably no big deal. He’s cute and thoughtful. And, he seems to understand what she’s going through better than anyone else. For the next two weeks, they exchange messages every day. He’s sweet, a digital shoulder to cry on when nobody else seems to care. They decide to meet up in person, so she borrows Dad’s car “to meet some friends at the mall.” That night, Daddy’s little girl doesn’t come home for dinner and Mom sits up all night. The next morning, they call the police. An officer searches her computer and finds evidence of the girl’s new relationship. Turns out, the boy she thought she knew didn’t exist. And, just like that, she’s gone.Reality check about child sex trafficking At ERASE, we hear heartbreaking tales like this all too frequently. Stories from average families dealing with everyday stresses when out of nowhere, their child is lured right out from under them. Whenever we tell these stories, the most common response goes something like this: “Child trafficking is something that happens to those types of kids out there. We live in a great community and our neighbors are good people who look out for one another. Something like that could never happen to one of my children.” This is the kind of response that makes us cringe. If only parents knew what we know, they wouldn’t be so quick to ignore this real and pervasive threat. Sadly, that very ignorance is what traffickers count on most when looking for children to target. The danger is far more imminent than most parents recognize. If we’re going to protect our children, we need to be clear on the real threats child traffickers impose. Traffickers are Smart, Motivated, and Tech-SavvyA dark and horrific market has grown up around the purchase and sale of human beings. Researchers estimated that, in 2007, Atlanta’s underground sex economy alone brought in $290 million. Even in a far less “saturated” market, sex trafficking in San Diego enables a pimp to pull in over $11,000 per week. Fast forward 10 years and there’s no reason to think that number hasn’t grown. Innocent children aren’t given a pass here. Instead, the most vulnerable among us are routinely bought and sold like property—many of them up to 15 times a day. With business booming, traffickers are working harder than ever to keep up with demand. Leaving no stone unturned, they use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, to research, target, and groom children for sexual exploitation. In fact, 77% of sex trafficking victims

report having been initially approached online. Just as a skilled marketer uses sophisticated keyword searches to identify his audience, traffickers monitor social media for anything at all that would suggest an easy target:Children with social media profiles open to public viewing Teenagers posting introspective status updates about feelings of insecurity Boys and girls who are venting about arguments with their parents Like a lion crouched in his thicket, a predator will scan through lines of text looking for vulnerable children to drag off into the tall grass. How many of those lines will have come from one of your children? Yes, your child can be a victim of sex traffickingThe children that traffickers rip from their happy homes aren’t pretend characters on television or disembodied faces from the evening news. They’re our kids, the ones we work hard to raise and the ones we hope to see grow up happy and healthy. They’re the kids we teach to be smart, to mind their surroundings, and never talk to strangers. And yet, we give them free reign to explore every dark corner of the internet via their cell phone. We must do betterLittle more than half of parents closely monitor their children’s online activity. So, when a stranger asks to connect on Snapchat, it’s nearly an even shot that no one will be looking over that kid’s shoulder. You can count on a child trafficker to take that bet. Do you know which platforms your children are using or who they connect with online? Do they have any secret accounts and how would you find out if they did? If someone asked to meet in person, would they do it? Can you be sure? These questions may seem intrusive and even overbearing. However, considering the reality of child trafficking in the United States, we have to ask these questions. Every day, thousands of children disappear into slavery. We’d like to hope our kids could never be victims but the facts simply don’t allow us that option. Understanding the facts of child trafficking is the first and most important step in prevention. There is HopeGood people around the world are standing up and fighting back against this great moral evil. You don’t have to live in constant fear for your children. The story we shared at the beginning of this post doesn’t have to be your story. And with some common sense and the will to step intentionally into your kids’ digital lives, you can protect them from becoming a victim of sex trafficking. The question is: will you? At ERASE, we want to educate parents on how best to protect their children from online predators. Please take a look at our tips and best practices pages to see how you can teach your children to be safe online.Juvenile Delinquent or Victim of Human Trafficking? Blog Story of a Human Trafficking Victim It’s midnight. Officer Scott pulls his patrol car into the lot of a small, 24-hour convenience store. As he approaches, he peers through the decal-laden glass door to see a middle-aged man struggling to restrain an agitated 16-year old girl. The store owner had caught this young woman and her boyfriend stuffing items into a small handbag. Her companion—a ‘white man in his late 20’s’—had bolted out the door without so much as a backward glance. The last thing on Officer Scott’s mind was “human trafficking victim”. Scott had seen this before. Some young teenager, looking for thrills, decides to pocket a few items from the local bodega and gets grabbed by the watchful owner. As he escorts the girl to his police car, Scott’s treated to an earful. She can’t stop going on about what a jerk he is, how he had violated her rights, and how much trouble she’d be in if he didn’t let her go right away. “Just wait until I call your parents,” he thinks. 📷 The Same Routine When they arrive at the station, Scott walks this young woman to his desk. She can hear the snide remarks of a few men handcuffed to chairs nearby. As they leer conspicuously at her, she shrinks further into herself. Scott starts in on his typical line of questioning: name,

age, address, and so on. The entire time, her phone buzzes with one text message after another. She begs Scott to let her reply, but he refuses. “There’ll be plenty of time to talk to your parents later.” “I’m not worried about them,” she snaps back. “They don’t give a crap about me, anyway. They’re too busy arguing to even notice I’m around.” Not sure what to make of that outburst, Scott begins to sort through the items she had attempted to steal: a sleeve of Hostess Cup Cakes, a Red Bull, and a box of condoms. “Must be one heck of a boyfriend to leave you there like that, huh?” “You wouldn’t understand. He loves me. He takes care of me.” Angry and frustrated by this girl’s bad attitude and ignorance about that poor excuse for a boyfriend, Officer Scott escorts her to a holding cell and prepares to process her out.Is This the End of the Story?

https://whateveryparentshouldknowaboutcps.blogspot.com/2020/08/what-every-parent-needs-to-know-about.html

#Child Sex Trafficking

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enchantingkittengaditor · 4 years

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Born Into This | 02: The Middle Of Starting Over

POV Paddy

“What do you know about what happened a week after your school started? I believe that was the week of the 8th of September. I’m particularly interested in yours and Ms. Barnes ‘study date’ on the 9th and your families’ reactions to you letting her into your home.”

“PATRICK! WHY THE HELL DID YOU INVITE A BARNES INTO OUR HOUSE!” My father yelled at me in his English classroom while Finn watched from the doorway.

“Because we need somewhere to work on the project you gave us. And anyway what does her last name have to do with anything?” I asked him.

“You’re still so naive. Her family is the one that destroyed our home in London. And I thought you could work on it at school or in a public space or at hers, not our home.”

“Why?” Finn asked from the corner of the room.

“So we could have a foothold in her house.”

“I can’t believe this. You promised me and mum that I wasn’t going to be like the other three. I wasn’t going to be a part of all this. I wasn’t meant to join until I was old enough to choose. Everyone agreed at least one of us was meant to have a normal life. I was meant to be normal,” I yelled at my father as Finn locked the class’ door, making sure no one got in to hear this conversation.

“No one in this family is normal Patrick least of all you. You are going to play an important part in the future of this family. You’re going to be the one to put us back on top and not be the minions of some second rate psychopath.”

“Well, this is all well and good but your next class starts in a few minutes and people are wanting to come in,” Finn said from his spot by the door.

“Of course. We’ll discuss this at home Paddy.”

“Actually, we won’t TJ’s coming over so we can do our project. You know the one you assigned us,” I said as we walked out of the door toward our next class.

“A little cold don’t you think,” Finn said as we moved over to our lockers.

“Maybe but it worked didn’t it.”

“Maybe but I have a feeling your study date’s not going to go as you have planned.”

“Maybe not but nothing ever does in that house.”

“You ready?” I asked TJ as I walked up behind her.

“Yup. I just need to grab something from Millie then I’m all good to go,” She said as she quickly shut her locker when she noticed me.

“What are you hiding in your locker?” I asked her.

“I’m hiding books, art supplies and a very embarrassing letter from my twin brother before he… Nevermind,” she said waving to Millie and Sofia behind me.

“Um erro para você,” Sofia said to TJ handing her a bag.

“Now I’m ready to go,” She said smiling at me.

We walked out of the school in silence, getting into my brother’s car. I started talking to Sam while TJ read her book on the car ride to our house out of the city. By the time we pulled into the long driveway, Sam had built up enough courage to talk to TJ.

“I hear you have a twin brother,” He had said to her.

“I had a twin brother. Had being the keyword in that sentence. It was one of the reasons I made the move here with my aunts,” TJ responded with a sad smirk.

“Can I ask what happened to him? I may not know what it’s like without my twin and I can’t imagine what it must be like but sometimes I wish I did,” He told her, looking her in the eye through the rearview mirror.

“He isn’t with us anymore. I’m not convinced he’s truly dead. It feels as though there should be a bigger gap in my heart if he truly was. But it just feels like it did when we were kids and we would go to different schools every day, except we’re further away from each other this time,” She said with a wistful look on her face as if she was trying to figure some big game of chess out, “Sometimes I wish that I could know if he was dead or not, just so I could either find him or his ghost and kill him with my own hands.”

“Well, feel free to do that to Harry anytime you want. I’ll help you make it look like an accident. I have the same emotions toward him as you do your twin.”

“I might take you up on that offer, Sam. But for now, Luisa May Alcott and her Little Women are calling my name and I need a good grade on this if I don’t want to be murdered by my aunt Hayley,” She said smiling at him as we got out of the car.

“Have fun you two and remember, Paddy, keep a door open!” Sam yelled at us as we walked into the house, while he waited for Harry so they could do something I don’t even want to think about.

“Sorry about him and my entire family and friends that live in this house,” I told her as we walked up the stairs to the front door.

“It’s OK. I’m sure my family is 1000% weirder than yours.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Ok. My brothers once decided it would be a good idea to throw toilet paper at my head for an Instagram video,” I told her starting with one of the less weird stories I have from my family.

“My aunts have a metal reinforced bomb shelter that could survive any bomb I’m aware of, in our apartment that they have told me on numerous occasions it’s not used for sex stuff.”

“OK, I’m thinking through all of my stories and none of them match that.”

POV Hayley

“What do you know about what happened the week of the 8th of September?”

“The only thing that I can’t remember that would be at all relevant.”

“Has it disappeared from your memory?”

“It appears it has slipped my mind.”

“So you have a date,” I teased TJ at dinner.

“It’s not a date, it’s a study session for an English project I could do by myself blindfolded in your warehouse. It’s on Little Women, all I really would have to do is ask Emma or Flo and I could get all the answers I would ever need. Or I could just do it myself but it’s a group project,” TJ told me stabbing my salad on my plate.

“It sounds like you have a date,” Lizzie told her.

“And you stole my salad.”

“It’s not a date,” She laughed/defended herself. “And I did.”

“If you say so,” I told her changing the topic, “So how would you feel about helping me on Sebastian’s case? You can annoy the hell out of him till he takes the plea bargain. Or you could trick him into a confession.”

“Aren’t you meant to be proving his innocence?” Lizz asked me.

“Yes, but no jury is going to let him get away with it in today’s society.”

“He was arrested for public intoxication, that’s a slap on the wrist especially with his family,” TJ told me what I already knew.

“He was arrested for public intoxication, attempting to purchase sex, and pimping out college girls. He can get away with public intoxication, maybe depending on his labwork but with his track record and all of this shit he’ll see some prison time. I hope. I feel so sorry for those poor girls he was pimping out,” I told her eating my own dinner.

“How is it that I’m the one who sees this as an uncomfortable dinner time talk? I’m the one that partakes in murder and torture for a living,” Lizzie spoke up refilling her wine glass.

“Maybe because you partake in mob activity and pimps tend to be mob members in this city?” TJ spoke.

“We don’t do that. Like we no longer deal drugs we help them out instead, providing employment and educational opportunities for those who would have no other option but to turn to people like Sebastian and Chris. We don’t play in that game. We try and empower women,” Lizzie said voice rising in anger.

“I’m sorry Liz, I just don’t know that much about all this,” TJ told her.

“So, should we play a game?” I asked trying to ease the tension.

“Sure,” They said in unison.

“How about two rounds of Never Have I Ever?” I asked.

“I’ll win so sure,” TJ said with a smirk.

“If you have you have to take a shot of hot sauce or vodka. I’ll start,” Lizzie said, “Never Have I Ever, worked for the law.”

“Screw you, Elizabeth!” I said as TJ tried to find the hot sauce on the table as I got the shot glasses and took a shot of vodka.

“I had one internship,” TJ said taking her hot sauce shot with pride, “My go, never have I ever shot a man.”

“Not myself, well not with a gun,” Lizzie said as we turned to look at her before she asked, “Do crossbows count?”

“Yes and I want to hear that story,” TJ told her as we both downed Vodka shots.

“Never have I ever had a crush on another member of a mob,” I say handing TJ the hot sauce.

“I haven’t Hayley, I haven’t had a yet crush,” She told me.

We finished our game and turned in for the night all of us doing our own individual tasks. That was until Lizzie came and saw me about TJ.

“I’m worried about her, it’s nearly the one-year anniversary of Robin’s death. I think we should do something about it. Either take her somewhere in memory of him or try to distract her from it,” Lizzie said standing in my doorway.

“Remember at the funeral she said she cherished the memory of going to McDonald’s in time square with him when they were 8 and first came to New York, maybe we could go there with some of her friends,” I told her looking at her through my mirror.

“Who should we invite?” Lizzie asked, “I mean obviously Sofia and Millie, maybe Mia, Emily and Lily?”

“What about her new friend from school? The one she has a school project with?” I suggested.

“Maybe, I’ll have Mr. T look into him, just to make sure there’s nothing too bad hiding in his closet. You can never be too sure with these things,” Liz said, “Maybe you should rethink your stance on Stan.”

“Maybe, you should reconsider Chris’s offer,” I told her.

“OK, so can we agree no more boy talk, lyubit',” Lizzie said to me moving toward me and away from the door.

“What do you want to talk about?” I asked her.

“I’d prefer to not talk and maybe do something else instead,” She smirked.

“Can you two please shut your door! I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANY OF THIS!” TJ shouted from her room.

“OK!” I shouted getting up to shut the door.

“Can I ask what happened next Ms. Atwell? Or has it disappeared from your memory as well?”

“What happened next is strictly between me and Ms. Olsen, God rest her soul and may it not burn in hell with those monsters that did this to her. But I’m sure you can assume what happened next.”

“I’d like to hear the words come from your mouth.”

“You sound like her, but instead of words she preferred to hear something else from me.”

“That’ll be all for know please Ms. Atwell,” The judge told me.

“But he wanted to know what happened next your honour and that requires a bit of foul language that may make you a bit uncomfortable.”

POV Chris

“What do you know about what happened the week of the 8th of September?”

“Not much admittedly, I was on a bit of a bender. You see I was just dumped by my betrothed thingy that Robert set up years ago to keep the peace when the Holland’s moved to New York. Meant to be a part of a peace treaty me and some other unfortunate soul were meant to marry into the Barnes’ as a show of peace.”

“Did this end with the events that unfolded?”

“No, it didn’t. Enough members survived for a need for the treaty.”

“Except they replaced me with Sebastian.”

“Just tell us your story.”

“Hit me again,” Sebastian told me as we played cards.

“We’re playing go fish Seb,” I told him.

“I know, I meant another beer,” He said.

“Sorry.”

“You seem distracted. What did Robert say?”

“The reason I’m Elizabeth’s liaison is I’m meant to marry her and one of the brothers is meant to marry Jean’s granddaughter. And from the age range, I was given of her it sounds likely that Paddy will be drawn into this life after all. And I’m meant to tell Nikki but she terrifies me.”

“She is a scary woman when it comes to protecting her children, especially Paddy.”

“She thought she could save his soul but very clearly she was wrong. I knew Dominic and Robert were up to no good in all of their meetings.”

“It gets worse. Robert killed the girl’s twin brother with his own hands. She was told he died of cancer which he did have but it didn’t kill him.”

“Robert killed a child with cancer because he thought he was a threat, that’s just cold even for him.”

“What was cold of me?” Robert asked coming into the kitchen taking one of the beers from the fridge to hand to Sebastian and another one for himself.

“We were talking about your plans for me and the Barnes girl.”

“She’s coming over tomorrow, it’s a bit of a study date. Hopefully, they don’t kill each other that would put a damper on my plans,” Robert said to us sitting on one of the stools at the bar.

“Why do your plans involve the love lives of two teenagers, isn’t that a bit weird even for you?” Sebastian asked him.

“Maybe but not here I get to say what’s weird and what’s not. Maybe you’d know the feeling if you stayed in Romania a little longer than you did.”

“OK, that’s enough Robert. It’s too much even for you.”

“You seem to have forgotten your place here Evans. As soon as you are in charge you can change how things are but until then I make the rules and Dominic made that deal to save what was left of his family and their business,” Robert spat at me.

Right, the destruction of the Holland Mafia, the event that lead to Robert becoming one of the most powerful men in the world. The events that took place in 2004. London was in term oil there were fights on the streets between the Holland and the Barnes Families until August when Dominic was losing he decided that instead of lose the little bit of power and control he had left he was going to strike a deal with the Barnes Mafia in an attempt to save his own life and the life of his boys. Though through my conversations with Elizabeth I doubt that anything would have happened to the boys other than they’d have been taken into the family fold and been brought up outside of the mob. He used that power to make a deal his yet to be born child would eventually marry the youngest Barnes. He didn’t tell his wife or his boys. He then used this deal to bargain for his escape to New York where the last few of his men joined with Robert’s giving him more power in exchange for protection.

“Fine but that doesn’t make it OK for this to be happening. Any of this,” I said.

“Maybe but what we do isn’t moral it’s a business based of people doing immoral things and if you can’t handle that I can and will arrange for your early retirement.”

“No thank you, Robert,” I said through gritted teeth while he left the room.

“We should tell the kid. Or Nikki maybe that could be a way around this whole thing,” Seb said once we checked that Robert was out of earshot.

“I’m pretty sure that we should tell the kids and Nikki at the same time, you never know maybe the girl will have the guts to kill Robert or at least hurt him,” I told him.

“If only she would. It would make life much easier for us,” He said looking around, “Now tell me about this Elizabeth character does she seem nice or like she’ll shoot you next time you enter her office?”

“Both if that’s possible. She seems like if I say one wrong thing or make one wrong move I’m going to end up in the Hudson. But I saw her with her I want to say niece the other day in central park and she seemed so calm and sweet.”

“She has a niece?”

“I looked into it and not really the kid refers to Elizabeth as aunt and lives with her but she’s Jean’s granddaughter.”

“So not her sisters’ kid?”

“No, they seem to have disappeared off the grid. They haven’t been spotted in 5 years apparently.”

“How have they managed that in today’s tech-driven world? And how did you get all this beer? Robert doesn’t own the beer trade in New York.”

“I honestly have no clue. And Elizabeth gave it to me as a peace offering for the first day on the job as her liaison, apparently, they’re the ones that managed to get almost all of the alcohol trade in NYC. Tip-off before t-total America.”

POV TJ

“What do you know about what happened the week of the 8th of September?”

“That was an interesting week for sure, we got contacted by two ghosts, I had a study session with Paddy and I nearly shot Tom Holland.”

“You shot a gun?”

“Oh god no I despise the things, I nearly shot him with a bow that I had in my possession for PE class. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it sounds. Yes, I actually hit him but it was his hair that got hurt and his ego but that could take a beating and still be too large.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. That thing was way too big just because Robert thought he should be his next in line.”

“So have you actually read Little Women?” I asked Paddy as I sat on his bedroom floor.

“First, you know you can sit on a chair. Secondly, I am almost done with it,” He said pointing to the chair opposite to him.

“Yes I know I can but I don’t want to. So I’m going to sit here on the floor and start working on the project while you finish reading it,” I told him opening my computer to start working through the list of tasks Paddy’s father had set out for us.

“Cool.”

After about an hour of working in silence, there was a knock on the door, followed by a woman pocking her head through the door.

“Hey, Pads do you and your friend want a snack?” The ginger-haired woman asked.

“Yes?” He said more as a question to me.

“Sure,” I said to her smiling.

“Thanks, Mum,” Paddy said as I turned back to my computer before I heard his voice go from that of a normal teenage boy to one that grew up in a family of mobsters, “What the hell do you want Chris?”

“I wanted to tell you two and your mother something I found out from your father and Robert. Well, actually from Elizabeth but it has to do with Dominic and Robert,” Chris said as I turned towards him.

“Why didn’t aunt Lizzie tell me if she wanted me to know, Christopher?” I spoke.

“Aunt Lizzie?” Paddy asked.

“Probably for your own protection but I don’t care about that. As long as you don’t die I can get away with anything to do with you,” Chris told me looking directly into my eyes.

“You underestimate my aunt, she’ll kill you if you get to close. She’s a sweetheart though,” I told him.

“Hey – Chris,” Paddy’s mum said voice changing instantly.

“Nicola. I have some news for all three of you.”

“Where does you shooting Tom come into this?”

“I’m about to get there.”

“Go ahead.”

After hearing the new Chris had to say Nicola went after her husband and I went in search of Robert Downey Jr. to kill followed by a puppy-like Paddy. I happened to have a bow and some arrows with me from PE which I took with me on this search. I did come across Robert with some of his close associates, mainly Paddy’s oldest brother, Tom.

“What the fucking hell Robert! When you said our families made peace all those years ago I didn’t think it meant with a freaking arranged marriage! That is the cruellest thing you have ever done and I am counting murdering my twin brother because you saw him and me as threats to your family! Well, Downey I’m here to tell you, you’ve just started a war you can’t win because even if you survive, all this won’t, neither will your legacy. Because the truth will come out whether or not you admit it is the truth. See you in hell asshole,” I stated drawing back the string on the bow and aimed at the table and Tom’s hair, meeting my targets before swirling around and walking toward Hayley’s car in the driveway leaving Paddy standing there staring at his brothers.

I overheard him say, “I should go back and finish my homework.”

“I got your bags from Chris. You need to get out of that English class and maybe that school,” Hayley said as I sat in her car and she took off.

“Or you need Jesus, maybe come to church once in a while kid,” Lizzie said through the phone.

“Or maybe I need someone to tell me the fucking truth from all of you,” I said grabbing my headphones and putting my on and staring out the window. Mr. T is the facts person in the mob if you need to find out anything you go to him and he’ll have the answer 24 hours later. He was the one that lead the charge against the Holland’s all those years ago.

When we arrived back home I stormed into the building getting into the elevator, “I’m going to see Mr. T he’s got more answers than either of you. Including one that I asked him to dig up yesterday.”

“Be home soon. It’s no longer safe for you in this city. You’re coming to church on Sunday. It proves your not actually going to hurt Robert at least not yet,” Hayley said.

“OK Hales,” I told her getting out of the Lift on the floor below Hayley.

“Hey, I heard you were coming over. And I got your answers,” Mr. T said as I knocked on the door.

“And apparently a tiger,” I said as I stepped into the apartment.

“Looking after it for a friend. But in answer to your first question. It’s true you’re suspicions were correct. Sadly for your brother and your mother,” He said.

“Sadder for his wife and my genetics. Now, what can you tell me about how to take down the Downey Mafia. I need to destroy them,” I said with what I hoped was the stone-cold look of a killer.

“Happily,” He responded, handing me a drink from his fridge.

POV Sebastian

“What do you know about what happened the week of the 8th of September?”

“Nothing that I’d tell you.”

“Please enlighten us, Mr. Stan, it’ll make this a lot easier for you down the road.”

“Maybe but it’s between me and the people involved not you and the internet. So I’d rather stay silent on the matter.”

“So she tried to shoot you?” I asked Tom.

“No, I think she just missed Robert.”

“Trust me if she wanted to hit you she would’ve. I’ve seen her trophies in Elizabeth’s office. She was just trying to scare you all,” Chris spoke up.

“Well, I hope next time she doesn’t aim to kill because I’d rather go out with a bullet than an arrow,” Tom said grabbing a beer.

“Well, then don’t piss off TJ or her family they tend to do things the old fashioned way,” Chris smiled into his beer.

“That’s interesting. How exactly did you know that?” I asked him.

“I have my ways, Stan. Now Holland what are you going to do about your brother?” Chris asked.

“That comes down to my parents. And I’m on standby in case mum needs a body disposed of.”

“Well, good luck with all that. We have bigger issues,” I said looking at the fridge.

“What? Out of beer?” Tom asked.

“Not quite but the only way we can get more is to ask Elizabeth or go through her and help aid her.”

“Well, before we inevitably go to war with the Barnes family, who are objectively older, wiser and more powerful, let’s get shitfaced and ruin our aim tomorrow!” I said.

“Cheers! Here’s to getting shitfaced by illegal means!” Tom said.

“Dude. Just speak normally.”

“Can I ask if you figured out how they figured out the outlawing of alcohol?”

“Probably, Hayley Atwell, she’s a lawyer at one police plaza and worked in Washington for a bit,” Paddy said grabbing Tom’s beer.

“Rough night?”

“Really your asking that after everything that’s happened today?”

“Fair enough, kid. Why don’t you join us?”

“You let a minor get drunk?”

“After everything you’ve heard today about these events that’s your question? If I let a minor get drunk? Of course, I let a minor get drunk! He just found out he’s betrothed to someone he has a school project with and he just met! Who may or may not be related to the people that killed his family members. And you ask if I let him have a beer?”

“Yes, Mr. Stan that is what I’m asking.”

“Well then. The answer is yes and I’m aware it’s illegal in two forms but I did it anyway.”

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the--blackdahlia · 5 years

Text

Too Young to Fall in Love Chapter 46 (Dirt!Nikki x Reader)

Title: Too Young to Fall in Love 46

Summary: Nikki Sixx was a hard partying musician on the strip. He never expected to fall in love with anyone, until a girl knocked on his dressing room door looking for a ride home and took his breath away. Just like everything else Nikki did; the drugs, the money, the music; Nikki went hard with love. (Y/n) Bass never expected the bassist of Motley Crue to be the one to shake her calm and calculated life up. She had a plan. Graduate school, become an epic producer, and watch from behind the scenes as her brother’s band rose to fame. Nikki and (Y/n) were perfect for each other, too bad her brother, Tommy, didn’t think so.

Series warnings: Smut (18+ Please), drug use, language, referenced miscarriage, drug overdose, mentioned attempted suicide, out of character moments for everyone in the band, the timeline might be a little screwy but it’s fanfiction! I know nothing of music production and my medical knowledge is really screwy, so it won’t be accurate.

Nikki spent a good amount of time at the studio. It would be another week before touring would resume for Generation Swine. It made him nervous. He hated being away from home. Tommy was back in the studio, but Nikki kept his words short with him. He did miss his best friend, but the pain that (Y/n) was going through made Nikki mad at the way the drummer treated her. Nikki had made sure (Y/n) had asprin and a relaxing day. He made sure Ziggy was with Vanessa and that she was just a phone call away.

“Dude I’m telling you, pregnant chicks and pickles are a thing,” Vince smiled.

"Why? She wants yours more often?" Mick said, deadfaced and monotoned.

“Among other things,” he said wiggling his eyebrows. “But on a serious note, those midnight runs are no joke man.” he smiled. “This kid is going to be amazing.”

"How are things going for you and (y/n) and trying?" Mick asked nikki. Tommy looked up from his drums.

“I think she’s getting frustrated, and I don’t blame her,” Nikki sighed. “I’m thinking about getting myself checked out. I know the problem is with me man.” Nikki grabbed his bass and bowed his head. “I’m always the problem.”

"Not always." Tommy said. "Sometimes it's a brother with an endless supply of booze."

Nikki lifted his head and looked at Tommy, “Ok, you and I need to talk. But first I want to lay down these tracks. Then you and I are going to go out to eat and we’re going to talk.” Nikki looked at him.

"Okay." Tommy nodded, chugging his water. He wanted a beer so bad, but it wasn't allowed in the studio.

“Let’s get to work,” Nikki said as they began rehearsing. Not long after Nikki stood in front of Tommy. “So you told (Y/n) that she stole me from you?” he shook his head at Tommy. “Where did that come from?” Tommy just shrugged. He wasn't sure how to explain what he said. He just felt that his sister had taken his best friend, the other terror twin, and tamed him. “Ok, let’s go find a place to eat and you are going to tell me what brought this on. No booze! You need a clear head.”

"Fine." Tommy grumbled. "Might as well go to McDonald's at that point."

“Then McDonald’s it is, you want a happy meal?” Nikki teased.

"Only if I can have the Barbie toy." Tommy laughed and flipped his hair.

“Such a good girl you are!” Nikki smiled. “I’ll meet you there,”

"I'll be waiting." Tommy smiled.

Nikki and Tommy met at a local McDonalds. Nikki opting for a Big Mac Tommy actually got the happy meal. “You are such a kid man.” Nikki smiled. “Talk to me man, where did this whole thing about (Y/n) stealing me come from. Because for a lot of this journey, we were still the terror twins.”

"I just...you were staying with her more often instead of partying. And...and you opted for the hotel more….and…" Tommy dropped the fries he was holding. "I need help man."

“Why didn’t you say all this when we were back in rehab?” Nikki folded his hand on the table and looked to his friend. “Just because I was with her didn’t mean I couldn’t have fun…. I just didn’t want to mess up. I was doing blow and letting girls suck me off while talking to her… I mean… we kept partying but… I should have realized you needed me too man… I’m sorry.”

"It wasn’t just you. I screwed up with Heather. I got involved with Pam. I just keep messing things up that has nothing to do with you. And I...I screwed up with (Y/n). I should be who she talks to when she has a problem. instead she runs to New York."

“New York was on me man, you know that,” Nikki sighed. “The night I was brought back to life… in ‘87… she came to me man and … we… let’s just say I thought it was a dream or a girl who looked like her and I went for the needle again.”

"So that's where she went. she left and for days no one could get a hold of her." Tommy explained.

“Yeah,” Nikki sighed. “We just got lost in each other and… next thing I know I have the needle in my arm and she’s saying she doesn’t want to watch me die… I made the decision we should all go to rehab and get clean then.” Nikki breathed. “Been clean ever since.”

"I wish I could've made myself be clean." Tommy sighed.

“Look man, I made the decision to be clean not just for (Y/n) but for myself… I mean… I was a mess even before we got together. You know that, and we can always have fun. Who says the terror twins can’t be terrors? You can be naked and sober. Hell we’ve done it before.” Nikki let out a laugh. “You get clean because I want to see you at our wedding… I still haven’t picked a best man you know… I was hoping…”

“You mean...me?” Tommy asked. “Are you sure man? What if I become you at my wedding?”

“I don’t think you would man. Besides, that was a mistake and I’m sorry… I was not in the right place and I should have been there for you with a clear head.” Nikki shook his head in shame.

“No, it’s okay.” Tommy shrugged. “Do you have a rough estimate of when the wedding is?”

“Not sure, but I know I’m supposed to be at your parent’s for dinner tomorrow,” Nikki chuckled. “Athena mentioned something about your aunts being there.”

“Oh god you poor man,” Tommy laughed. “When I spent a summer in Greece with them, they tried to pimp me out to all the girls in town. I mean, I didn’t mind, but some of those girls had muscles bigger than my, well, everything. They grow ‘em big in Athens.” That’s when both of their cell phones rang at the same time.

“Hi ma.” Tommy answered.

“Athena? Is everything okay?” Nikki asked. Both women were talking and the boys just nodded before hanging up.

“Guess who’s coming to dinner.” Tommy groaned. “Mom didn’t tell them I got remarried until this morning and they want to meet Pamela.”

“Yeah Athena just told me,” Nikki groaned. “I gotta tell (Y/n), I hope she’s feeling better though. She had a killer migraine.”

“She still gets those?” Tommy asked. “I was kinda a dick to her back then when she got them.”

“Yeah I know,” Nikki sighed. “She threw up when she was out with your mom planning the wedding. I think she’s just stressed… I’m thinking a nice trip to Hawaii and some fun time to help her relax.”

“Is she still upset that she hasn’t been working?” Tommy asked. “I know that she’s kinda been blacklisted by a few labels because of what she did for us.”

“I think we should create our own label with her as our manager,” Nikki looked at him. “I mean, she’s done a lot for us and we can help other artists along the way. I’ve written and produced some things for other people and she’s been there to help me along the way.”

“And she did write most of my songs for my first album, which I feel guilty about.” Tommy sighed. “And she did trademark Motley Records for us. Oh! Look what she gave me a few months back. I’m waiting for the right time to record it though.” He slid the paper to Nikki to read.

Nikki read the words and closed his eyes. He knew she was feeling depressed but this was on a whole level. Looking at Tommy he gave him back the paper, “She has talent man… I just wish I could get her to see it.”

“That’s...that’s probably my fault.” Tommy told him. “I thought I was driving her in the path of a career that would be more stable than the music business by telling her there was no money in songwriting, things like that. God, I was so shitty to her.”

“Well, you’re going to have to get clean and fix it man,” Nikki sighed as he cleaned up. “I should go, I want to make sure she’s ok.”

“Okay yeah. I got some calls to make anyway.” Tommy told him. “See you tomorrow man?”

“Yeah I’ll see you tomorrow,” Nikki said as he gave him a high five and a hug. “You’re still me best friend man, don’t forget that.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get soft on me now Sixx.” He smiled and headed to his car. Nikki headed home. Vanessa was parked in the driveway and Ziggy was running around happily.

“Hey Ness, is everything ok?” Nikki asked as he got out of his car and made his way inside.

“Yeah. (Y/n) called and said she was feeling better. Well enough to have the kid home, not well enough to drive.” Vanessa told him. “Oh! Vince’s oldest has some puppies they need to rehome. I was wondering if you guys want one. If not, Vince is going to try to adopt all six of them.”

“Ask (Y/n), Ness. I don’t mind Ziggy having someone to keep him company. Besides I got to talk to (Y/n) about something.” He smiled as he walked inside and laughed when Ziggy ran around the living room.

“Well, good. Because I already brought one over and (Y/n) is cuddling with her up in your room.” Vanessa told him.

Nikki laughed as he shook his head, “Alright, well let me check on her and you can go on home. Vince was saying he would have to buy an entire pickle factory for you.” he teased.

“Ha, ha. He’s sooooo funny.” Vanessa grumbled. She was already plotting how to get back at him. Maybe promising him his favorite thing and it not happening would be perfect. She left the house, leaving Nikki and Ziggy downstairs.

“Come on Zig lets go check on Mommy,” he said as he made his way upstairs with Ziggy following behind him. He reached the bedroom door and knocked softly. “(Y/n)? Can I come in?” A small bark answered him, followed by a giggle.

“Come on in.” (Y/n) laughed. “Jett, that’s your daddy and your brother.” The little labrador retriever wagged her tail happily when she saw Nikki. “Hi honey.”

“Hey,” he said as Ziggy jumped up on the bed sniffing the new puppy. Nikki leaned over and kissed her. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah a bit.” She smiled up at him. “How was your day?”

“Eventful, I talk to Tommy.” he breathed and sat on the edge of the bed caressing her cheek. “He’s going to be at the dinner tomorrow at your moms.”

“Oh, that’ll be a blast.” (Y/n) sighed. Jett whimpered and laid by her. (Y/n) scratched her ears.

“Man, Ziggy and Jett.” Nikki looked at the new puppy and ran his fingers over her. “I know hun, but… Tommy has his demons to battle and… he says he’s sorry.” Nikki looked at her. “We can cut out early tomorrow no problem.”

“I’ll sit and listen to him I guess.” (Y/n) snuggled up against Nikki. “So, what do you think of her?”

“I love her,” he smiled. “I was thinking of checking myself out… down there…” he cleared his throat. “There’s gotta be something wrong with me.”

“What?” (Y/n) looked at him. “Nikki, there’s nothing wrong with you. Trust me.” She smiled at him. “What brought this on?”

“I don’t know,” Nikki sighed. “I just feel like it’s my fault we’re not pregnant yet.”

“Something wants us to calm down and enjoy ourselves I think.” (Y/n) told him. “And, who knows, the gene that my mothers side has that allows them to have like twenty kids, it might just have skipped me.” She shrugged. “But there’s nothing wrong with you Nikki.”

“I feel like I’m letting your down,�� Nikki swallowed the lump in his throat.

“Nikki, if we never have kids and just grow old with twenty dogs, I’ll be happy. As long as it’s with you.” She smiled at him.

“We can be Dogy parents,” he smiled and kissed her deeply. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

“Me too.” she kissed him again. “I missed my soon to be husband.”

“I missed my soon to be wife,” he breathe as he lay her down and peeled off her clothes. “Can I show you how much I missed you?”

“Oh course.” She moaned. “Just be gentle with me.” Nikki smirked.

Nikki removed his clothes as he hovered over her, gently pushing into her. “Fuck I missed you.”

“Oh god. Fuck.” (Y/n) moaned. “I missed you so much Nikki.”

“Shit sweet girl,” he moaned, “you feel so good.” (Y/n) just moaned in response. She loved having Nikki like this. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding him close to her.

“N-Nikki!” She moaned, cumming around him.

Nikki let out a strangled cry as he came in her, holding her body close. He collapsed next to her pulling her close. “Fuck I love you.”

“I love you too.” She curled up in his arms, resting her head on his shoulder. “Glad you came back into my life.”

“I’m glad you let me come back,” he kissed her shoulder. “I wish we were getting married tomorrow sweet girl.”

“Let’s do it.” (Y/n) whispered. “Let’s just tell everyone that we’re going to go to Vegas and if they want to be there, they can be there.”

“You and I both know that your family would kill us,” he laughed. “But… I am going to be happy seeing you walk down that aisle.” he smiled. “Nap time?”

“Mmm yes.” She said, falling asleep by him.

When he woke up later, she was gone, but he could smell food coming from the kitchen.

“What smells so good?” he smiled as both Jett and Ziggy ran up to him.

“Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn.” (Y/n) said. She was just wearing her underwear and one of Nikki’s shirts.

Nikki walked up behind her and ran his hands under the shirt his fingers tickling her skin, “God you look sexy. You are going to make me fat with all this good food.”

“I think you work out enough that you won’t have to worry about it.” (Y/n) laughed.

Nikki kissed her neck and smiled, “I want you to know that you make me happy sweet girl. You are very special to me and I hope I’m making you happy.”

“I’m the happiest I’ve been in a long time.” She told him. But there was something off sometimes. She felt like some days, her meds were working and she was the best fiancee and doggy mom ever, but then there were days where she could barely pull herself out of bed, let alone put a smile on her face. She didn’t know what was wrong with her.

*********

Nikki pulled up to the Bass house and looked over at (Y/n), “You ok?”

‘Yeah.” She took a deep breath. “Are you sure we can’t just go to Vegas?”

“If you can convince your family to agree to it, i would book a flight this minute,” he smiled at her. They watched as Tommy pulled up with Pamela. (Y/n) took another deep breath.

“Are you ready?” (Y/n) asked.

“As ready as I can be,” Nikki said as he got out of the car and ran around to help (Y/n). “Just squeeze my hand if you need to ok?”

“Okay, I will.” They got out of the car and met up with Tommy and Pamela. Pamela hugged (Y/n).

“Hello you two!” She smiled. “It’s so good to see you.”

“Hi Pamela.” (Y/n) smiled at her, not making eye contact with Tommy. “Ready to go in?”

“Yeah, although I’m not sure what to expect with the aunts,” Nikki smiled nervously.

“They’re fun. Just watch out for Aunt Calliope. She’s a cheek squeezer.” Tommy laughed. (Y/n) rang the doorbell. David answered the door.

“Hey dad.” (Y/n) said, forcing a smile on her face.

“Hey pumpkin,” he said and hugged her tight. “Nikki! Good to see you,” he shook Nikki’s hand and hugged him. “Thomas and Pamela come on in guys.” he hugged each of them and smiled. “Everyone is in the living room.” They made their way in and soon, Calliope, Tahlia, and Erato were all at Nikki.

“Η αδελφή μας είχε δίκιο! Είναι! (Our sister was right! He is handsome!)” Calliope called out, pinching his cheeks.

“ Um… Hi….” He smiled and leaned to (Y/n), “What did she say?”

“That you’re handsome.” (Y/n) laughed.

“Μοιάζει σαν να έχει σκαλισθεί από τους Θεούς! (He looks like he was carved by the Gods!)” Erato laughed, watching him.

“Κορίτσια, κοιτάξτε τον κώλο. (Y/n) τα παίρνει ώριμα! (Girls, look at that ass. (Y/n) picks them ripe!)” Thalia added to it. The aunts all fawned over Nikki, separating him from (Y/n).

“Um… (Y/n)! Help!” Nikki called as they pushed him up against the wall and smiled nervously.

“Hey what about me?” Tommy looked at his aunts and pouted. “I’m here too!”

“Uh oh.” (Y/n) said. “T-Bone, you know what’s going to happen, don’t you?”

“Huh? What? I mean I’m here and they should say hi,” Tommy had no clue.

“Baby pictures…” (Y/n) hissed. Tommy went to find the albums, but his mom and aunts beat him to it. “Shit…”

“Thomas, come sit with me.” Calliope demanded. “And bring your golden bride with you.”

“Yes Tia Calliope,” he grumbled as he led Pamela to the couch as the baby pictures were passed around.

“Nikki, you must look at her.” Voula said, handing Nikki the album. There was a picture of (Y/n). She must have only been about three or four, sitting on the couch with a book in her lap and Tommy sitting on the floor in front of her. He knew she couldn’t read the book, but she was telling him a story anyway and he was listening to her as she went.

“Sweet girl! You look so cute!” Nikki held her close and smiled.

“Mom, why?” (Y/n) groaned. The aunts were all busy showing off pictures to Pamela. Athena came in through the kitchen door.

“Oh, is it baby picture time?” She teased. “This one is my favorite.” She pointed to a picture of the three Bass children on a trip to San Diego. Athena and Tommy were standing in front of the lion enclosure. Tommy had (Y/n) on his shoulders, with a pair of mouse ears on her head.

“You guys look happy,” Nikki pointed out.

“(Y/n) can I talk to you?” Tommy looked at (Y/n). seeing the pictures stirred something in him and he looked at how upset his baby sister looked when she saw them.

“Uh, sure.” (Y/n) said, getting up. Nikki watched her, ready to get up if needed, but (Y/n)’s spot by him was taken over by Thalia. “What is it?” (Y/n) asked when they made it through the kitchen door and stood in the backyard by the pool.

“I’ve been a crummy brother lately and… I know I’m not… look, I just didn’t want you to end up in the music business and be disappointed when you wouldn’t make it. But you are so talented and I was an ass for stealing your notebook when it was personal. Most of what you wrote… sis… have you talked to anyone?”

“I...I don’t know what you’re talking about…” (Y/n) said, looking out over the pool. A stray cat was drinking water from it.

“(Y/n/n)...” he took a breath. “I’m checking myself into rehab, can you promise me you’ll talk to someone… please… Oh and by the time I get out I’m taking Nikki on an awesome Bachelor party.” he tried to lighten the mood. “He loves you and he’s good for you and you’re good for him.”

“I was going to ask you something too. But if Nikki’s already claimed you as a best man…” She smiled at him. “I want you and dad to walk me down the aisle.”

“I would love to short stack,” he said as he pulled her into a big hug. She hugged him back. Athena popped her head out.

“Okay losers, dinners ready. Mom said wash your hands.” Athena told them. Tommy and (Y/n) flipped her off before going in and washing up. They took their seats for dinner. Nikki held (Y/n)’s hand.

“Think we should ask about Vegas?” he whispered.

“Yeah, I think I’m gonna say something.” (Y/n) said, smiling at Nikki. She opened her mouth to say something when Tommy interrupted.

“Okay guys, I have an announcement to make!” Tommy said. (Y/n) looked over at Nikki, who just shrugged. “We just found this out yesterday. Mom, dad, you’re going to be grandparents.” He rested a head on Pamela’s stomach. “Pamela’s pregnant!”

Nikki looked over at (Y/n) and squeezed her hand. He gave her a reassuring smile before looking at Tommy, “Congrats you two.” The aunts all turned their attention to Tommy and Pamela. (Y/n) stood up.

“I’m gonna go grab something from my old room. I’ll be right back.” She said, leading up the stairs. Her parents had let her store stuff in her old room, and had kept it slightly made up just in case she ever needed someplace to go. She shut the door to the room and looked around at everything. She had to breathe. She was letting Nikki down by not giving him kids. She knew it. She sat down on the bed and held her head in her hands.

Athena looked around for (Y/n). Nikki was cornered by the aunts who were asking him about getting (Y/n) pregnant quick. She walked up the stairs and knocked on (Y/n)’s old bedroom door. “(Y/n) it’s Thena.”

“I’m okay. Just looking for something. I’ll be out in a minute.” (Y/n) told her. She started pushing boxes around like she was actually looking. She didn’t want to go out there until she knew for sure that she would be able to keep a smile on her face.

Athena opened the door and walked inside, “you ok?”

“I’m great!” (Y/n) said, giving her a smile. “I’m...great…”

“You can kid Tommy because he’s stupid, but me? No you can’t.” She pulled (Y/n) into a hug. “I know you and Nikki are trying. Have you talked to your therapist recently?”

“I...I actually haven’t been in a few months.” (Y/n) admitted. “I was doing good, so I stopped making appointments.”

“(Y/n/n) that’s not good,” Athena sighed. “You need to call them, make an appointment.”

“I was doing so good ‘Thena. But everyone is having kids and getting married and I was going to say Nikki and I just wanted to go to Vegas and get married and Tommy made his announcement.” She sat down and sighed. “I’m letting Nikki down ‘Thena.”

"Who says you're letting him down?" Athena say with her. "That's all in your head. He loves you and he's happy. If he didn't he wouldn't let Tia Thalia pinch his ass and smile.” she laughed.

"What if he decides he wants a Pamela who can give him kids?" (Y/n) asked.

“(Y/n)?” Nikki called from downstairs.

“Is that what you think? (Y/n) I want you to talk to make an appointment, you can’t think like that.” Athena looked at her sister’s eyes. “What has got you thinking this way?”

Nikki’s footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs. Athena looked to (Y/n) and held her face in her hands. Athena wasn’t sure when her baby sister began to lose her light again but she knew she had to say something.

“I’m going to tell Nikki, he should know…” Athena moved to the door.

"He worries too much and would blame himself. Just keep it between us please."

“But…” Before Athena could argue Nikki knocked on the door.

“Sweet girl are you in here?” Nikki poked his head in and smiled. “Sorry are you guys having sister time?”

"I just came in here to look for something." (Y/n) smiled.

“I’m going to let your fiance talk to you,” Athena walked up to Nikki and smiled. She was tempted to whisper thet (Y/n) needed help but she didn’t want to send her sister over the edge.

"Are you ready to go Nikki?" (Y/n) asked.

“Yeah, are you ok?” Nikki caressed her cheek. “I know Tommy announcing something like that sucks, but I talked to your mom about the wedding…”

"Its ok Nikki." She told him. "Maybe it's a sign to no Vegas?"

“Well I was able to convince your mom to that beach wedding you were talking about,” He smiled and kissed her. “I mean I had to agree to a really huge engagement party but what’s one party your mom throws against an awesome beach wedding?”

“Oh sweetie, you have no idea what you’ve signed us up for.” (Y/n) laughed. “Imagine a Motley Crue concert, but instead of screaming girls and their metalhead boyfriends, it’s a bunch of Greeks.”

Nikki laughed and held her tight, “I love you sweet girl and this is going to happen no matter what. Even if we go to the courthouse to make it official I am marrying you this time.” Nikki held her face in his hands and kissed her. “Think we can get away with a few minutes of hot sex in your old room?”

“They still going after Tommy and Pamela?” (Y/n) asked. “Because if they are, I bet we can.” She kissed him deeply. “Just like old times.”

“They are fussing over her and I was able to get away,” he mumbled against her lips as he pulled her top off her. “I think we’ll be ok.”

“Let me just click the lock into place.” She locked the door, because her luck, Tommy would walk in on them. “How do you want me Mr. Sixx?”

“Want a ride Mrs. Sixx,” he smiled as they both shed their clothes. Nikki was peppering kisses over her body as he led them to the bed.

“I think I like hearing you say that.” She moaned softly. “We just gotta keep quiet, okay?”

Nikki laughed, “think you can do that… Mrs. Sixx,” he whispered against her skin as he sank her down on him. She bit her lip to keep from crying out as she rocked on his cock.

“N-Nikki…” She moaned softly. “F-fuck.”

Nikki brought her mouth to his as he swallowed her moans. He guided her hip on him as she bounced on his lap. She felt amazing on him. It felt even better when they thought about how they could get caught at any minute.

“I...I…” She whispered. He could hit all of the right spots and having her coming undone in minutes flat.

“Cum for me (Y/n),” he said against her lips as he kissed her furiously his hip meeting hers in fast thrusts. She kissed him deeply as she moaned loudly into his mouth, cumming around him. If they had more time, Nikki almost wanted to see how many times he could get her to cum.

“Wanna see if I can make you cum again Mrs. Sixx?” he gave her a devilish smirk before thrusting his tongue into her mouth.

“If you think you can Mr. Sixx.” She moaned into his kiss, loving the feeling of him inside of her.

Nixxi reached between them, his thumb finding her clit as he pressed circles onto it. He wanted to make her cum just one more time before he spilled into her. “Want to feel you again.” She grabbed onto him, moaning as she felt the pressure building up again. She knew she was going to scream if she wasn’t careful. Nikki buried his face into her shoulder as he felt his own pressure build. Her was trying hard not to yell out, but she felt so good.

“When we get home,” (Y/n) panted. “We can be as loud as we want.” She kissed him deeply.

“Fuck yeah,” Nikki murmured against her lips. “I’m close Mrs. Sixx. So close to cumming inside you.” he groaned as he kissed her while thrusting into her, his thumb still circling her clit.

“Cum in me baby.” She whispered as she squeezed his cock, trying to milk everything out of him. “Fill me up.”

Nikki’s thrusts became erratic as he spilled into his he kissed her deeply. When it was all said and done he placed his forehead against hers. “You’ll always be my sweet girl.”

“Promise?” She asked in a soft whisper, almost inaudible.

Nikki gazed into her eyes and smiled, “promise.” She kissed him gently.

“You know, we could climb out the window like you used to when we would fool around up here.” (Y/n) laughed a little.

“That is an idea,” he smiled and kissed her. “It’ll happen,” he whispered. “It might take us some time… but I know it will happen for us.” She was about to say what if it doesn’t. She was about to tell him her fears. But instead, she just smiled and nodded, letting him hold her until Athena knocked on the door.

“Hey you two, mom wants pictures, the aunts are getting ready to sound the horn to get the family all over, and they want to discuss a good date for the engagement party.” Athena told them. “So, stop screwing like rabbits for like five minutes, okay?” (Y/n) blushed.

Nikki chuckled and kissed (Y/n)’s shoulder, “Come on sweet girl, let’s go back to your family.” Nikki helped (Y/n) get dressed and then got dressed himself before opening the door.

(Y/n) kept a smile painted on her face for the rest of the night, feeling Athena’s eyes on her. They set an engagement party date that would work for everyone, and it gave the rest of the family from Greece to get there, as well as all of (Y/n)’s American family. They were told to invite Vince, Vanessa, and Mick, which was a given.

“Is Mick the blond one or the scary, broody one?” Erato asked Tommy and Nikki.

“The broody one,” they echoed and laughed.

“We should go on a ride on our bikes man,” Nikki smiled at Tommy.

“Yeah man, we should.” Tommy smiled. “But, actually, I start rehab in a couple days.”

“Darling niece, is Mick single?” Erato asked while Tommy and Nikki talked.

“Oh my god.” (Y/n) groaned.

Forever Tags: @anathewierdo @dekahg @marvel-af-imagines @feelmyroarrrr @nanie5 @imboredsueme @gemini0410 @aiaranradnay @babypink224221 @mogarukes @xxwarhawk @sandlee44 @shatteredabby @caswinchester2000 @supernaturalwincestsblog @lauravic @mrsambroserollinsacklesmgk @teller258316 @horrorpxnk @tommyleeownsme

Motley Crue Tags: @primal-screamer @waywardprincess666 @twistnet @saint-of-los-angeles @vader-kai @motleyfuckingcruee @sharon6713 @kawennote09 @2dead2function @nikkisixxwiththebass @iamtiber-andtiberismusic @jayprettymuchomw @charlyallise @you-know-im-a-dreamer @sweet-dreams-on-butterfly-wings @estxxmotley @arianareirg @the-normal-potato @nikki-sixxtynine @jjjjjjjoshdun @just-a-normal-fangirl18 @stella20131991 @tarahell @wowilovenikkisixx @i-want-to-shoot-myself @motleycrueee @sams-serialkiller-fetish @getbackhonkycatt @are-you-reddie54321 @flamencodiva @deacyduck @scarecrowmax @major-tom-is-a-junky @anyasthoughts @bandaids-not-groupies @ilovetomkeiferslips

Nikki Sixx Tags: @daisystuffsstuff @unknownoblivion @deakysblueoutfit @fandomshit6000 @sixx-mckagan

Too Young to Fall in Love Tags: @kingbouji3 @leximus98 @thekidbakerinthetardis @crystalbaby12 @shawnsstxtches @knockemdeadgirl @deansgirl1993 @haileynicoleseavey17

#too young to fall in love #Motley Crue #nikki sixx #nikki sixx x reader #nikki x reader #the dirt #dirt!nikki sixx #dirt!nikki sixx x reader #dirt!nikki x reader #dirt!nikki #fanfiction

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movetothesuburbs · 5 years

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Fatherhood in Sunny

My favorite thing is daddy issues, so of course I gravitate to a show that has so many. So many. It’s always daddy issues in Philadelphia. Uh, I have a lot of thoughts, so I’m just going to jump right in.

Frank Reynolds: World’s Best Dad* *as long as he didn’t raise you

Frank is undoubtedly just the worst person and that bleeds into his role as father. He was largely absent while Dennis and Dee were growing up, the only support he provided was financial. Emotional support was completely non-existent. This leaves us with highly privileged, emotionally stunted people. (Barbara did have a hand in this with harsh criticism of Dee and high praise for Dennis, so yay for toxic parents all around)

Frank poisons and pimps his children as a way to gain more power and money. Dennis falls into the trap more often than Dee does, or at least in a more compliant way. Dee resents people telling her what to do, while Dennis crumbles when people fall into a caretaker role for him. We see this in The Gang Gets Whacked when Dennis just completely loses all sense of independence with Frank as his pimp. We get a glimpse of this in Mac and Dennis Break Up, where Dennis is barely able to function without Mac telling him what to do or doing simple tasks for him.

Dee has verged in the opposite direction. While she still craves the same validation that Dennis does, if she doesn’t get it when she asks for it she decides to try and prove her worth by showing how much she can do on her own. She takes over whatever scheme on her own, or makes a show of how helpful and stable she is. (she isn’t) Dee tries to convince herself that she’s grown up without trauma, Dennis lets the trauma consume him.

The fact that Frank is not their biological father doesn’t end up affecting the dynamic so much. The damage is already done, so when the twins try to connect with their bio dad, they’re unable to form a genuine emotional connection. (as an aside i love the choice of actor being the dad from 7th Heaven) They are fundamentally broken people, largely due to Frank’s influence, so they resort to scamming and scheming. Bruce highlights all the attributes that Frank is lacking: charity and empathy. He tries with the twins but ultimately knows that relationship won’t work out and chooses to distance himself from them. Frank, sticks around, joining in on the shenanigans, but never giving them the love and care they so desperately crave and deserved growing up.

But things with Charlie and Mac are different. The way Frank treats Charlie is much kinder than he treats the rest of the world. It’s unclear if Frank is Charlie’s bio dad, but that hardly matters. Their relationship really blurs the line between familial/romantic/platonic. It’s strange and beautiful and disgusting. Get you a man who will play nightcrawlers with you. Still they get along well and Frank does a lot to take care of Charlie, both financially and emotionally. (in that weird codependent unhealthy way of theirs.)

Charlie grew up without a dad and his mom being was a sex worker (no shame in that, but maybe don’t bring a bunch of strange men around your kid). Speaking of, it’s pretty fucked up that the only consistent adult male figure Charlie had growing up was an uncle who molested him. There’s also a lot to unpack with the fact that uncle Jack is a lawyer, which is a career that Charlie latched onto. (You are not a certified bird lawyer but I support you) When all is said and done, Frank is the best father figure Charlie has.

And in a weird way, he’s also the best father figure Mac has. But I can’t really go into that without talking about Luther

Luther McDonald: A Dad, I Guess* *I hope he gets shanked in prison

Mac grew up neglected on all sides of the table. He was poor, his dad was in and out of prison, and he needed to deal drugs just to be somewhat accepted by his peers. Luther does not love his son. Whenever they do interact, Luther is critical, manipulative, and witholds affection. Again we can bring up the way Mac and Dennis interact with each other. Dennis, in general, is more affectionate with Mac, at least in earlier seasons. They’re on more equal footing and Mac often manipulates Dennis right back. I promise this isn’t an entire post about how Mac and Dennis project their daddy issues on each other, but they sure do that don’t they?

Luther simply doesn’t care about Mac and shows open contempt for him. Mac has been vying for this man’s approval since he was a child. It’s important for Mac to come out to his dad. Regardless of how Mac feels about the outcome, Luther walking out provides some closure. If there isn’t any acceptance in that moment then there never will be.

That brings us back to Frank. Throughout Mac Finds His Pride, he keeps saying that he doesn’t it and never will. But the thing is, he tries. He makes the effort to try and help Mac find his place as a gay man, because even if he doesn’t get it, he supports him. As weird as that is coming from Frank. And in the end he does understand Mac better. So not to praise Frank too highly as a father because he is a disgusting little man who abuses and neglects his own children, but he did kind of adopt Charlie and Mac in his own way.

But we have another father to talk about, too.

Dennis Reynolds: Father of the Year* *I guess. Who knows what happened in North Dakota? Not us. Maybe Mandy and Brian Jr. died

So, obviously, Dennis isn’t someone you’d think of as father material. It would cramp his image as cool bachelor. But the fact is, he totally bailed on the chance to hook up with some mom at the waterpark to spend his whole day with a cool kid. And he was ready to lay into who he thought was her parent. He saw a smart kid, and made a weird connection to her. And even when she swindled him, he was so proud of her. Sure, teaching your kid tips on how to swindle people isn’t good parenting, but it was a bonding experience. His day with Abby was probably the most genuine connection he made to anyone outside of the gang. Sometimes you adopt a daughter for a day.

There was no pressure or expectation with Abby, though. That could be brushed off as just Dennis being weird. Dennis definitely has an idea in his head about what he is supposed to be and what he needs to do to fill those roles. He doesn’t have a strong sense of identity and will latch onto certain expectations. When Mandy shows up with a baby she named after him (or, rather, fake him) it brings to light all the things that society expects. You grow up, you get married, you have children. It’s normal. It’s grounded in something. It’s what is expected of the straight male experience. (when Dennis says things like “As a straight man” i can feel my soul leave my body with shock every time)

The immediate response from the gang is to get him out of this situation. Because one of the roles Dennis has so carefully crafted for himself is the cool, straight bachelor who can’t be tied down by any woman. Throughout the whole thing, we see his resolve crumble. Frank was a piece of shit father, and Dennis has seen how Mac and Charlie turned out without dads. He’s thinking about the consequences of not filling this specific role. (Mandy is amazing af though and would definitely raise a stable child without Dennis’s help)

The crushing weight of your own trauma can make you do some crazy things. Like make you leave your entire life behind to go be a dad in North Dakota because you think that is the correct thing to do. We don’t know what happened there, but the fact that he came back indicates that it didn’t pan out. Maybe Dennis isn’t cut out to be a dad when faced by the expectations of the nuclear family. The fact is, he could be a wildly interesting father who encourages his kids, or maybe he’d just end up feeling trapped and having a breakdown. There’s a lot of fatherhood trauma in there

A Conclusion of Sorts

With all of the gang dealing with their relationship to fatherhood, it is interesting that Dennis, Mac, and Charlie were all fully willing to take up the mantle of father for the baby Dee gave birth to. I don’t for one minute think they would have raised a “normal” child, and it’s likely they would have fallen into the same patterns they saw growing up, but to embrace the idea and be excited about it is certainly something. Mac was ready to raise an entire child with Dennis (That was probably more to do with Dennis than it was about being a dad). Time and time again we see the gang confronted with fatherhood and either embracing it or rejecting it. Dads really fuck you up!

#iasip meta #iasip #sometimes you write 1500 words of commentary for a sitcom #also i know i talk about mac a lot but he's my fave so i'm not ashamed of my clear bias #also i think sometimes the read more is broken on mobile #so i apologize for that

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tipsytaee · 5 years

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NCT 127 – “Neo City: The Origin” in San Jose (Fan Account - 190509)

Left work at 5:40pm, arrived in San Jose at 7:10, bought chicken nuggets from McDonald’s, and entered the concert hall at 7:50.

Hall feels kind of like a high school auditorium. Was expecting something a little more memorable.

I was kind of nervous and wondering if the $160 would be worth it, but I was excited about it too. Texted BFR and MKT a quick photo and both replied with excitement for me.

Concert begins.

(Cherry Bomb) Took me a little bit to get energized, but the smooth glide, backward fall, and leg split were everything.

NCT lightsticks are bright af. Every time the girl next to me waved hers to my side, I think I went just a little bit more blind lol.

(Chain) Taeyong’s absss. I was trying to fix something on my phone and, BAM! Front and center on the big screen. That shit came out of nowhere >.<

Didn’t have a lightstick this time, so I was just kinda awkwardly standing there. People around me must’ve thought I was the quietest kpop fan ever. But in my head I was hyped xD

(Ment #1) Taeyong really knows how to pump up a crowd—from his stretched out “Ohhh yeahhhh” that reclined into a sexy, throat-deep groan to his vocalized sports tournament siren after introducing his name. And his little fumble when trying to say “lifetime memories” was cute.

(Fly Away with Me) Ugh, this song put me in a mood. And Taeyong’s bouncing dance moves. He does them really nice.

(Back 2 U) Yuta’s vocals o.o And Taeyong’s soft swag throughout.

Not as many Taeyong stans as I thought, but definitely one behind me. I relate to her every time she screams for him when he does something remotely sexy and the crowd is quiet in obliviousness xD

(City 127) Slower song and Taeyong’s still not able to sit still. He was the only one who stood up and danced around for his part, and he continued to wiggle around in his chair after that xD :3

(Angel) So. Much. Skinship. Taeyong scooting his chair over to Jaehyun and being all squishy, touchy, and adorable with him. More with Yuta & Doyoung, and Jungwoo & Haechan. The line, “I’ll be your morning star” gave me all the feels. I eventually found myself swaying along.

(Jet Lag + more) Yuta’s slow, emotional hair flip and his unrelenting cuteness. If Taeyong doesn’t do it first, this kid might just kill me >.<

(Ment #2) Yuta being cute af and possibly throwing some random Japanese in there? xD

(No Longer) Definitely falling for Taeil’s voice.

So many Taeil, Haechan and Jaehyun stans.

(Regular) Taeyong’s sex faces live are killing me.

(Wake Up) The bars have come out. Hyped by Taeyong’s “Are you ready San Jose!” and subsequent ‘yeah’s and ‘whoo’s and arm pumping dance.

(Baby Don’t Like It) Taeyong literally coming in like a pimp on top of the bars. Sunglasses, posture, attitude, and all lmao.

(Mad City) The vibrations man, the fucking building was shaking.

(Good Thing) Taeyong’s outlandishly flamboyant paint-splatter suit, wtf xD Also his moonwalk is so fucking smooth. Yuta is adorably bouncy in his cute yellow sweater.

Seeing Taeyong’s sex faces in person is ridiculous (part 2).

…is Yuta my bias wrecker?

Chipmunk voices on the mic… (Started with Mark’s mic during Mad City and continued randomly throughout)

Changing lightstick colors with the music. Didn’t expect that to happen here. For some reason I thought it was only a Korea/Japan thing lol.

(Superhuman) The superior song. Always fall for that head snap in the beginning.

I was watching Taeyong for most of the concert, but I swear I saw Taemin’s face flash by for like half a second. I think the desperation to see Taemin live is getting too strong xD

(Ment #4) I fucking looked up and Taeyong had taken half of his sparkly jacket off during the ment. Guns fully loaded. Biceps at the ready. But my poor heart wasn’t >.< Haechan speaking Korean for the first time during the concert kind of made it more real that I was watching Korean idols who had traveled halfway across the world to perform in front of me. Taeyong and his backwards visor and casual black clothes is fucking hot. Taeil getting embarrassed when Johnny told him to growl and flex his muscles one more time, adorable :3 Taeyong did clapping push-ups, aegyo-ed, and fucking dabbed in the span of 20 seconds >.< Jaehyun asking if we’re ready to “get hot.” Boy, I’ve been steaming for an hour now (both literally and figuratively lol. Couldn’t find the time to take off my coat xD)

(Summer 127) The resonance and vibrations from the bass line had me shaking (in a good way). Taeyong’s front group seemed a little lost in the music when they finally went back into choreography—they kept looking at each other like “uh…” and wiggled their arms around aimlessly until it matched everyone else lol. Taeyong went HARD during this song. His panting had me thrown, and he rapped so hard his fucking vein popped out.

(Ment #5) Doyoung’s adorably cheesy fortune cookie story. Fortune cookie read, “You will touch the hearts of many.” Generic but absolutely true ^^ Taeyong’s pouty face before his ending speech. And he put his hands together, almost in prayer, when thanking his fans. It was so heartfelt and sweet.

(Pre-0 Mile) Taeyong’s switch from his soft voice when correcting the crowd’s move for “mine mine” to his deep, loud, crowd-pumping voice at the final “girl you’re just mine mine!” I love his duality. And the way he turned around to walk to the back of the stage for 0 Mile. Hot.

(0 Mile) Taeyong being a mom and picking up Doyoung after he fell to the ground trying to protect his abs xD He’s such a sweetheart <3

For the last three-ish songs, Taeyong was super energetic and hyped for the performances. It got me hyped too.

Their “San Jose is a real vibe-killer~~” xD

Someone threw a rose at Taeyong when they were walking from the left side audience to thank the right side, and he got adorably flustered. He fumbled with the rose a little bit, but he did manage to catch it.

Taeyong picked up the rose he had put down earlier to hold his members’ hands and bow. He was being such a tease with it, putting it sexily in his mouth, tango style, and turning around and pausing every two steps to pose with it. He also put on an adorable “San Jose” beauty pageant sash before posing with the rose and heading off stage. He was the last member to leave and he kept dorking around and teasing his fans, it was so freakin cute >.< (Side note: Found out later he was recently crowned “in charge” of their San Jose stop, which is why he had the sash.)

That ending^ was all I needed to make that whole concert worthwhile. I love you Taeyong <3

Concert ended at 10:40pm. Walked back to my car and drove home listening to nothing but NCT songs.

Post-concert thoughts: In the beginning, it felt like I was just watching another random concert. I was also hesitant about going even before that because I only really listened to about half the songs on the setlist. But I realized there’s something about concert settings that just makes everything sound amazing. The concert eventually evolved into something more meaningful and that I was super spazzy about and into (probably triggered by something Taeyong did lol), but it got so much more exciting after that and I loved it.

P.S. Taeyong’s shirt was sheer????

#concerts #nct 127 #fan account #text #my post #mine

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weirdwariii · 6 years

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My Top 20 Albums of 2017 Part 2: 10 - 1

10. Alvvays - Antisocialites: What a delightful album. Like, I should just leave it at that, because I’m not sure what else I want to say about it. This is just the kind of indie pop-rock album that felt plentiful and unavoidable 10 years ago, but doesn’t show up as much anymore. But I don’t think its noteworthy just because it’s filling a niche. It’s just an effortlessly tight album. It sounds good, the vocals are great, the songs are amazing. There’s hints of some interesting inspirations sprinkled throughout (someone was listening to Stereolab…), and I just can’t get enough of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the longrun, this album has some more longevity than most of the other albums on this list.

9. Thundercat - Drunk: Let me start here: I picked up this album on vinyl this year, and it’s one of the coolest looking packages to come out this year; great cover art, lots of art inside, and...the album spread across three 10” discs. To get through the album on vinyl you need the steadfastness to flip three different discs after each side, and to put away each disc and replace it with the next at least twice. That’s a lot of commitment for any album, and the very thought of listening to this album on vinyl exhausts me (considering that my turntable is located on the opposite side of the room from my couch). With that said, I’m pleased to announce that I love this album, despite its presentation. I feel like this is the third year in a row that Thundercat has felt like an important part of important music (see also: To Pimp a Butterfly, You’re Dead! and The Epic), and its good to see that its own name on the cover of his work this year. This is an album that feels uniquely his, and somehow makes a song about watching anime in Japan seem as much of an artistic accomplishment as making the best yacht rock song in 30 years with the help of Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins. The entire album is an equal parts quirky and soulful trip and hints that future albums could be even quirkier and more soulful. Just, like, listen to it digitally.

8. Rolling Blackout Coastal Fever - French Press EP: So what does this say: For a 6-song EP, these songs must be exceptional if it was better than all those other albums? Or that, as an EP, there’s less of a chance to be bored with it by the end? Well, for what it's worth, this is the only EP on the list, so it clearly did something right. Honestly, if this was at LP length and was 10 songs at the same quality as the 6 presented here, this would probably rank even higher. As is, this is just a breezy and effortless set of indie rock songs from a new band that sounds like they’ve been around 10 years longer than they really have. There isn’t a moment that goes to waste, and I’m always left wanting more at the end - a quality that even some of my favorite albums this year didn’t have. I sincerely hope there’s a full length on the horizon, and that it makes good on the promises hinted at here.

7. Oh Sees - Orc: Sometimes there’s just the perfect album at the perfect time. Maybe its a band that you’re finally getting into as they put out a new album, or maybe it's an album that just seems to mesh with the kind of music you’ve been into lately. Maybe it's an album that just resonates with how you’re feeling in that moment. Sometimes it's all of the above, as was the case here. I finally got into Thee Oh Sees last year, absorbing their two albums in my quest for more music that was in the same vein as Ty Segall’s Emotional Mugger. Between these albums, and King Gizzard’s 2017 output (we’ll come back to that), I was 100% on board the fuzzed out psych-garage-punk bandwagon, and that's when this album fell into my lap. I just love everything about this album. It’s raw, it’s weird, it’s loud, it has the most epic drum solo I’ve heard all year on it. My garage-rock sensibilities were spoiled silly this year, and this album played a huge part in that.

6. Japandroids - Near to the Wild Heart of Life: I read a review earlier this year for this album, and I’m kind of paraphrasing from memory, but it essentially said: “In a trying year like 2017, you’d think a band like Japandroids would have more to say on that, rather than making more fun punk music.” And that literally made me love the album even more. The best response to the darkness of our world, as it turns out, was to remind you of what it looks when you make it to the light at the end of the tunnel. The band doesn’t necessarily do anything they haven’t done before - there are few risks or moments that would sound completely out of place on an earlier album. But they really are great fucking songs. The title track is, hands down, the best song that was released this year. Yeah, maybe this didn’t call our orange meat puppet a buffoon or anything, but it sure as hell will be playing on my headphones on the day that we wave goodbye.

5. Washed Out - Mister Mellow: As we approached the end of 2016 and with the mostly unknown, but likely dark, void of 2017 looming ahead, I vowed to make art more important in my life. It needed to be an escape just as much as a response. And when I felt overwhelmed by the news cycle, or when the inspiration I needed just wasn’t there, Mister Mellow was. Between the “visual album” aspect of this project (that I strongly urge you to check out) and the music itself, it completely fit in with my aesthetic as artist and never failed in giving me a little pep talk. It's not a long album, nor is it an especially deep one. But in terms of style and just being a pool of strangeness to get lost in, this album never let me down. It might not be an explicit reaction to 2017 in itself, but it definitely aided me in creating my own.

4.Tyler the Creator - Flower Boy (or probably, Scum Fuck Flower Boy): The genesis of Odd Future was a weird time for me as an aging fan of music. On one hand, here was this collective of talented young rappers churning out a near-constant stream of albums for free - a concept that was novel and exciting to follow. On the other, between fast-paced Twitter stream-of-thought and community in-jokes, Odd Future definitely felt like the exact moment that I felt like I was an old man who didn’t get what the kids were listening to. And through that, I followed Tyler from afar. He’s a funny guy who you’ve been able to watch mature, year by year, to someone who feels very much like a spokesperson for a generation (am I crazy for thinking this??). This album feels like his most personal, self-aware, and world-aware album in his career, and there’s a quality in the production and the songs worthy of that awareness. I recognize the lack of hip hop music in my list this year, and that’s a very fair observation. My only excuse (and it is just an excuse) is that Flower Boy was just that hard to beat, for me. I listened to this album a lot this year, and I found myself relating to some of Tyler’s own personal revelations.

3. Father John Misty - Pure Comedy: Earlier this year, speaking to a friend of mine about this album, I was voicing my displeasure: “The album is just far too long and says far too much. I just feel like I’ll never have the energy to slog through the whole damn thing.” But, again, 2017. The world needed protest music, or at the very least, music that seemed to understand the world we now lived in. So I slogged through Pure Comedy and...it wasn’t a slog at all. Okay, sure. It’s long. It takes its time. But Josh Tillman GETS it. Its a bad, and darkly amusing, world out there, and he’s here to let loose about it. The album only got better through the year, with every single listen. Even the 13 minute “Leaving LA” centerpiece feels wholey essential, acting as almost an origin story for FJM as much as it's a state-of-the-union on Josh’s personal life. This album didn’t just grow on me this year, it came to feel absolutely essential.

2. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Flying Microtonal Banana, Murder of the Universe, Sketches of Brunswick East, Polygondwanaland: Not only did it not seem right to pick just one album of the 4 (at the time of my writing this) albums released by KG&TLW this year, but it felt like there was a larger picture here that needed to be recognized. King Gizzard promised 5 albums this year, and of the 4 we got, not a single one disappointed. Not a single one felt like a weak link to me. Not a single one felt like a misstep or seemed inessential. In a year where albums from some of my favorite bands bounced off of me after a listen or two (sorry, Grizzly Bear), this one band somehow made 4 albums that I cared about and kept coming back to. Flying Microtonal Banana and Murder of the Universe were both instantly loveable. They feel right into the same psych-rock wormhole that Oh Sees had me traveling through - especially the latter, with its story-driven sections and spoken words just hit the spot in every way possible. Sketches didn’t resonate with me at first, admittedly, perhaps because of its vast difference in sound from Murder - but I came around on it quickly, and its jazz-leaning pop would actually become the second most listened to of the 4 albums (with Murder being 1st). Polygondwanaland, finally, felt like a singles compilation - a complete set of tracks that, while feeling a little disconnected from each other thematically, shows off everything the band is capable of as well as hinting at what could be on the horizon. I honestly can’t say enough good things about this band, nor can I recall the last time that a band’s entire aesthetic just resonated with me so much. And to bring such a great quantity of music (with equal amount quality) to the table was just...perfect. Or, y’know, close to perfect. Because these albums are only #2 on the list.

1. Priests - Nothing Feels Natural: Nothing Feels Natural was one of the first (if not the actual first) albums I fell in love with in 2017, and it felt like the album that all others would be measured against. And, for the most part, this album always felt like the best. There were times when other albums felt more important in a moment (Murder of the Universe and Flower Boy both immediately come to mind), but when the buzz wore off a little, I was always happy to come back to Nothing Feels Natural. Here, Priests nail both a cohesive sound, yet its done through an assortment of genres. The surf-rock of “JJ” (another contender for year’s best song), the spoken word punk of “No Big Bang” and the new wave of “Suck” all seem to be at contrast with each other on paper, but the entire album flows together effortlessly. The band is tight as hell, and for as much as I want to call them “punk” there just isn’t a lot of the discordant noise I’d associate with that label on this album. There’s a Spoon-esque attention to production on this album - everything feels planned and well thought-out and there’s barely any wasted moments. Musically, I think the album holds its own against almost any other that I’ve listened to this year. Yet, I don’t even think its the music that even puts it here in the top spot - that’d be the lyrics. You’re probably as sick of hearing about the influence 2017’s politics had on music as I am sick of writing about it, so I’ll try and condense it a little...but you get the idea. For songs written prior to the year, they certainly hit all the right spots for the issues that mattered in 2017: Identity. Feminism. Consumerism. Culture. Even if it would’ve been the right album at any time, it still felt especially poignant this year, and the fact that it sounds so great only propelled it the very top.

And that’s it. That was my favorite music of this year. All done. The end. Onwards to whatever black hole of despair 2018 will be.

#weirdwariii2017eoy #music #music list #king gizzard #priests #tyler the creator #father john misty #japandroids #alvvays #rolling blackouts coastal fever #thundercat #washed out #thee oh sees

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shamelessly4shameless-blog · 7 years

Text

Nickovich (pt 4)

Mickey gives Ian the meeting place, a time, two hours from now, and hangs up watching Ian walk down the road, an unreadable expression on his face. Mickey wants to believe it is caught between dread and excitement, with excitement holding the upper hand, but he isn’t actually sure.

As soon as Ian is gone, Mickey drives round the corner and picks up Nicky who is looking pretty damn sheepish.

“Sorry I fucked it up.”

She says as soon as she closes the van door, looking at Mickey with large, concerned eyes.

“Nah, you did fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Mickey is too distracted to give her shit and besides, she did her best and he hadn’t been much fuckin’ help, freezing like that.

“Can we swing by a drug store?”

“Why?”

Mickey asks, pulling into traffic and glancing sideways at her. She doesn’t look sick but the last thing he needs is some sort of dysentery in a van with no bathroom.

“Female stuff.”

Nicky says bluntly and Mickey cringes.

“Shit. We need to find you a place to shower and change.”

“Awww. Such a gentleman! Taking care of my woman needs.”

Nicky laughs, turning the radio on as Mickey takes one hand off the wheel to flip her off. The harsh tones of British rock band Mickey has never heard of called ‘Oasis’ fill the car and Mickey grimaces

“Jesus, they sound fuckin’ retarded. I thought English people were classy!”

“And American’s are all Abe Lincoln, huh?”

“I was the Abe Lincoln of mouth whores once.”

Mickey mumbles, he isn’t really paying attention to the conversation, his mind is a blur of red hair, navy uniform and pale hands curled lightly into fists. Nicky squints at him. It would kind of make sense if he had been a pimp, not likely to touch the goods and clearly an aggressive little fucker, but somehow she just can’t see it.

“You don’t strike me as the kind of guy into selling women.”

“Not selling. Renting. And to be fair, I only wanted to make sure my wife got paid properly. The rest just fuckin’ snowballed.”

Mickey pulls into the parking lot of a drug store and kills the engine, shutting off the radio. Nicky lights two cigarettes from her stash and hands him one

“Wait, your wife was literally a whore? You weren’t just being a misogynistic prick?”

“Huh?”

Mickey is distracted, checking the mirrors for any sign of cops, he wants to go in with Nicky to try and lift some scissors and shampoo, deodorant too if they have the kind he likes. Mickey discreetly sniffs himself. Fuck. He’ll take whatever they have.

“Your wife was a whore and you … pimped her out?”

“Oh. Yeah. I think she still is too. She enjoys it as much as any job and gives her the day time to spend with the kid. People think it’s a shitty thing to be, but fuck it, pays the bills. You ready to go in?”

Mickey asks tugging his sleeves over his tattooed fingers and arranging the beanie on his head to push as much hair over his face as possible, hiding his features a bit. Nicky leans forward impulsively and kisses his cheek.

“I think I might love you. You’re fucking nuts!”

“Says the bitch about to go lift tampons with a dude she met last night.”

“Yeah, so you know you’re fucked if even I think you’re crazy.”

Mickey rolls his eyes and shoves her shoulder almost affectionately

“Get the fuck out my van.”

The store is mostly quiet but there are a couple of ladies milling the make-up aisle and miraculously a guy who looks even sketchier than Mickey cruising near the painkillers, drawing the staffs attention like a magnet.

Mickey smiles to himself and moves fast. Scissors, deodorant, shampoo … he is about to leave when a small, familiar tub catches his eye. Hair wax. He pockets it, running his thumb along the corrugated tin edge with a contented sigh.

He considers a razor but the packets are tagged and he is risking too much for vanity as it is.

Nicky is heading toward him, practised and casual and he feels a spark of pride, like when he taught Mandy how to lift proper shit when they were kids. It took a few goes and more than one scuffle with some dipshit clerk who thought it was a good idea to try and grab her, but eventually she got the hang of it. She had been so pleased she’d lifted him a really fucking cool lighter with flames and shit running up the plastic casing. Mickey had treasured that lighter all through seventh grade.

Mickey turns smartly on his heel and heads for the doors, he passes the scanners and has one foot into the fresh air of the parking lot when alarms erupt behind him.

“FUCK!”

Nicky yells and then they are both running.

“What the fuck did you take?”

Mickey yells over his shoulder, he is outpacing her by a long stretch and misses her reply. He slams into the van door, wrenching it open and shoving the keys in the ignition before he is even in his seat.

“Get the fuck off me, man! Hey! Get off!”

Mickey turns and sees Nicky being hauled backward by the security guy who chased after them. She is putting up a good fight but there is no way she is getting loose. Mickey hesitates, glancing toward the McDonalds across the road. There is a cop cruiser at the drive in. Fuck sake!

He glances back at Nicky and the guard and squeezes his eyes shut tight. He must be crazy, he thinks, because suddenly he’s running away from the van and his fist is connecting with the security guards jaw and then he’s pulling Nicky forward, pushing her ahead of him and kicking the guard in the gut, doubling the guy over, before chasing after her.

Nicky doesn’t bother with the passenger door because the driver side is open, she lunges in and scrabbles over just as Mickey appears in the doorway and launches himself in after her. The van might be a piece of shit, Nicky thinks, but it’s shit fuelled by bad paella because it flies out of the parking lot at top speed, in a screech of foul smelling gas and they’re free.

Mickey checks the mirror a few times and slows down to regular speed as his pulse slows and he grins despite himself. He should be freaking out but it’s been a while since he had a rush like that and he feels quite elated. Nicky apparently feels the same because she tips her head back and lets out one of those awesomely loud laughs that Mickey is growing to actually like and punches his shoulder

“Shit! You really are Abe Lincoln! The Abe Lincoln of mouth whores and ex-junkie fugitives! The way you smacked that guard? Oh man!”

Nicky is cackling in malicious glee for her would-be captors demise and Mickey smiles broadly at her.

“That guy was fuckin’ DONE!”

“Yeah he was! You fucking owned him”

“Fuck yeah, bitch!”

Mickey accepts the high five Nicky offers him and then raises his eyebrows in surprise as she catches his hand and presses a kiss to his middle knuckle.

“I can’t believe you came back for me. Thank you. Really. I appreciate it, Abe.”

“Forget it.”

Mickey shakes his head, still smiling and retrieves his hand

“So what did you fuckin’ steal that set the alarms off? It better be fuckin’ good!”

“I got you a razor, but get this: I pulled the fucking tag off it with my damn teeth.”

“Then what …?”

“Only other thing I took was tampons! These assholes are tagging sanitary products now! Lower class women don’t stand a damn chance.”

“Assholes.”

Mickey agrees.

They park down an alley in the city, it is in a public place but quiet enough so that it doesn’t seem weird that there is a rusty old vehicle parked down there. Nicky glances at Mickey and sighs

“OK, I gotta ask it: Am I doing this in here or ...”

Mickey looks confused and Nicky lifts the hem of her hoodie, revealing the stolen box of products.

“Oh shit! No, you ain’t doin’ that in here! Jesus! Go find a rest room.”

“Fine, that’s what I thought. Wait for me here?”

“Yeah ok, but hurry the fuck up, I’m meeting Ian in an hour and ...”

“Ian! Hey, I got a name!”

Mickey clams up, two bright spots of colour rising in his cheeks. He had forgotten himself for a moment there and now he is eyeing Nicky warily, the camaraderie of the last hour all but forgotten.

“It’s cool, Abe. There are a fuck ton of ‘Ian’s in this world.”

Nicky tries a smile but he has gone all tight lipped and pissed looking again and she sighs in resignation.

“I’ll be ten minutes, tops. Please be here when I get back.”

Nicky hesitates and then shoulders her bag as she gets out of the van. She really wants to believe he’ll be there when she returns but there is no doubt he just spooked himself big time, and she gets the impression when it comes to fight or flight over an internal conflict, this guy chooses flight.

Mickey watches her disappear down the alley and grips the wheel hard. His first instinct is to drive away and leave before she gets back. He is letting her in too far, giving away too much. Knowing his wife is a Russian whore is one thing, there are hundreds of them all over Chicago; but he took her to Ian’s house and now he’s given her his name too. He’s trusting her with too much.

Mickey lights a cigarette and fishes around under his seat for the can of beer he knows is stashed there. He finds it and popped the can open with his thumb. He’s not a fuckin’ kid any more, prison taught him that lesson. It beat the lesson into him every single day he was in there. He’s twenty-three and he isn’t supposed to breathe free air until he is in his thirties. If he gets caught now, he’ll see forty inside a cell, maybe fifty. Fuck. Probably not fifty. He won’t last that long inside and he knows it. It’s not about killer instinct, Mickey has that, it will be the loneliness and the boredom that get him long before some young up and coming asshole shivs him in the showers.

And then there is Ian. If Nichol’s blabs now, that’s fine. Ian is still just an innocent bystander of the Milkovich menace but now without the kidnap element of the plan, he could be considered an accomplice. Fuck!

Mickey shakes his head. For one deranged second he imagines them being sent down together, linking hands beneath the court bench and then being taken down, put in a cell and making their happily ever after home in orange jumpsuits, growing old together in shitty contentment.

He catches the sloppy half-grin that the thought raises in the rear-view mirror and clenches his jaw, erasing all traces of the smile. Nichol’s is right, he is crazy. Gallagher makes him crazy and always has done. Though it is normally the sort of crazy that makes Mickey feel like he might have an actual stab at happiness, a feeling of rightness amidst the chaos of his life that he never felt with anyone else.

Now he is staking everything on that feeling, chasing it down even though it makes no sense to do so. Fuck love, man. Fuck fucking love! Mickey stabs his smoke out viciously in the plastic ashtray and runs a hand over his face. He better at least get one decent fuck out of Gallagher before this all goes to shit.

There is a tap on the window and Mickey leaps half out of his skin, whipping his head round to glower at Nicky’s grinning face as she tiptoes to press against the glass.

“You will not believe what I found!”

“It better be fuckin’ Jesus or Buddha or some shit because I’m about to fuckin’ kill you.”

“Better than that. Come on!”

Mickey looks at the LGBTQ centre doorway dubiously.

“It’s a homeless shelter kinda thing for run away LGBTQ kids or something. They got showers and for a dollar you can get towels and do laundry.”

“So?”

“We’re LGBTQ kids!”

“What even is that?”

Mickey frowns, confused, and Nicky rolls her eyes. She can see her breath on the Chicago air and really just wants to shower, change, maybe mooch some toast, and just generally get out of the cold for a while.

“Jesus, Abe. Catch up to the times! Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Queer.”

“Oh fuck that! I’m not goin’ in that house of freaks.”

“Seriously?”

Nicky frowns up at him and pinches his leg making him jump

“Ow! Fuckin’ what?”

“You’re a gay ex-pimp with a whore ex-wife and a penchant for kidnapping ex- lovers. People in glass houses, huh?”

“Whatever. Why are we here?”

Mickey makes an impatient gesture, rubbing at his thigh and Nicky tips her head back groaning in frustration

“These places don’t ask too many questions. It goes with the territory. You can go in shower and make nice for your man, I can wash myself to a suitable standard of hygiene and then we can go.”

Mickey is clearly tempted but he hesitates and glances down at Nicky, folding his arms protectively across his chest.

“Okay, so do you have to … like … prove you’re gay or whatever? I’m not wearin’ a fuckin’ dress.”

“That makes two of us, let’s go.”

Nicky tugs him forward and Mickey squeezes the little tin of hair wax in his pocket for reassurance as he takes a deep breath and follows her up the steps into the warm.

“Hi there!”

A friendly young guy smiles at them as they step into the reception room and Nicky is instantly charm-personified, which is a good thing because Mickey is instantly all raised-eyebrows and flatly unimpressed mouth.

“Hi! My friend and I are currently between accommodations and we just stumbled across this place. Any chance we can take a shower, maybe wash our clothes and get a bite to eat?”

“Oh, we’re specifically a shelter for LGB...”

“Yeah, yeah. We fuckin’ know. I’m a homo and she’s a muff-diver.”

Mickey snaps irritably. He doesn’t want to talk to this curly haired little douche with his trendy little chin fluff beard, he wants to shower and, cut his hair and go find Ian.

“Cool, uh … it’s just …”

The curly guy looks like he feels kinda sorry for them and Nicky sees her opening. Watching her work is like watching a child prodigy on the cello. She is uncanny in her ability to be at once innocent and wise, humble and yet flaunting their pitiful situation with almost shameless abandon. She is a master of her art and Mickey knows the curly guy is fucked.

“OK, listen. Go ahead and shower, we do have to do some paperwork but maybe we can do it after. I have some calls to make, if you’re here when I’m done, we can do the forms.”

“Thank you so much … uh ...”

“Trevor.”

“Trevor! Great! I’m Lorna and this is Abe. We appreciate your help.”

Trevor gives her a smile, glances anxiously at Mickey and then says

“Showers are just through there.”

And steps into what they can only presume is his office, closing the door lightly behind him. Mickey sniffs and takes off his belt.

“Give me your belt, come on, quickly.”

“What? Why?”

Mickey looks at her incredulously and gestures towards the door

“So we can tie him up and make sure he doesn’t call the cops.”

Nicky wants to slap him upside the head but doesn’t want to get into a full on scuffle so contents herself with a stern shake of her head

“No. Absolutely not. I just talked him into free showers, you are not turning this into some weird hostage situation.”

“So I just get in the shower and wait for the cuffs to clamp on my fuckin’ wrists?”

Mickey scoffs, licking his lips and glancing between the office door and the main entrance.

“It’s not that kind of party, sweetie.”

Nicky smiles with more patience than she feels and then sighs.

“Okay, fine. You go shower, I will stand guard and then we’ll switch.”

Mickey reluctantly rethreads his belt and does as she says. Following stupid suggestions is a damn recurring theme of his life.

Within fifteen minutes he is clean, shaved, Nicky has cut his hair and he is stood in the small male only changing room, a towel wrapped around his waist, fiddling with the wax in his hair in the mirror. He has thirty minutes until he is due to meet Ian. He skipped the docks part of the plan, Iggy was a little pissed about the wasted morning of waiting for Mickey’s call but it’s fine. His brother is one of the most laid back people Mickey knows until it comes to an actual fight. Terry used to think he was retarded or something but Iggy is just that sort of guy. Easy going.

He simply told Ian to meet him at ‘Their spot’. If they end up in different places, that will be a whole other shit-show but if Ian has half a damn brain, he’ll be at the High School bleachers and if not, if Mickey finds him somewhere else, he’ll kick his ass. The thought of Ian loitering awkwardly in the Kash and Grab freezer actually makes Mickey snort with laughter and he hastily finishes up with his hair. There is an abandoned tshirt that looks pretty clean and about his size on a hook and Mickey takes it without hesitation. His own shirt has dirt and jizz on it and it’s hardly a fair trade but it’ll have to do. He gingerly kicks his own shirt into the corner and swaps before finishing getting dressed.

Nicky is talking to the curly guy, Trevor, when Mickey comes out and she whistles appreciatively.

“Damn Abe! You scrub up real nice!”

“Yeah you do actually.”

Trevor grins and Mickey grunts, nodding vaguely in his direction.

“Thanks, ah, I gotta go. You coming?”

“Nah. I’m gonna hang here a bit. You go. I know where to find you.”

There is no mention of forms or signing or anything that would make Mickey need to think about killing Trevor for an easy life, so he nods to Nicky, picks up his jacket and heading out the door.

“I think he might have just stolen my shirt.”

Trevor says mildly and Nicky nods sagely

“Yeah. Probably. Looks good on him though.”

“Yeah it does.”

Trevor nods back. They clink coffee mugs like old friends and Nicky settles back into her chair, pondering.

#shameless #shameless us #shameless fanfiction #shameless imagine #ian gallagher #ian x mickey #mickey milkovich #Milkovich #nicky nichols #oitnb fanfic #oitnb #orange is the new black #Milkovich and Nichols #nickovich

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djrokymanson · 7 years

Photo

Redd Kross

LA ROCKS! vol 2 no 6

Sept 4, 1987

REDD KROSS - by Ruben McBlue

BLUE: Okay folks, we’re here with REDD KROSS’s Steve and Jeff McDonald and friend David. The guitar player and drummer couldn’t make it cause they had pressing engagements.

STEVE: They had satanic rituals to perform…before midnight.

BLUE: We have Steve and Jeff here, the two brothers that started the band. Right?

STEVE: Yeah, the only important ones…(laughter)

They might be important to their girlfriends, I guess…(laughter).

BLUE: Okay, when did you guys start?

STEVE: My heart started beating when I was four.

JEFF: We started in 1978.

BLUE: How old were you then?

STEVE: I was 25, he was about 30, then(laughter) naw, I was 11, he was 15.

BLUE: And you actually started then?

JEFF: Yeah, we learned how to play instruments, write songs and started REDD KROSS all at the same time.

BLUE: Well, that’s different…(laughter) and were you a punk band then? What did you play then?

STEVE: Well, RICK JAMES kind of ripped our thing off, James, but we were a punk funk band, that was our thing. We were called punk funk.

JEFF: We were heavily influenced by the “Busting Out” album by RICK JAMES, but we were beginning to sound like the RAMONES. We couldn’t pull of major fame.

STEVE: It goes back to our New Delhi roots, actually.

JEFF: Oh, that’s such a long story.

STEVE: I know, a lot of people know about it.

JEFF: Wes used to live in India when we were kids, cause our Dad was in the military. They started like, folk music there, and we came back to America and punk rock was just starting and it was so easy to play, so…

STEVE: We were kind of like Hindu Folk, a folk duo (laughter).

BLUE: Did you have a sitar?

BOTH: No.

JEFF: It was like instead of Americans playing Indian flavored music, it was Indians playing American flavored music…

STEVE: My guitar might as well have been a sitar, cause I played it the way I would play a sitar.

BLUE: So where did you play? Hong Kong Cafe?

STEVE: Oh no, there were a lot of folk type places in New Delhi.

JEFF: Oh you mean after we came back.

BLUE: Yeah.

JEFF: Oh, we used to play the Hong Kong, the Fleetwood in Redondo Beach and Bijou.

STEVE: Which was once called the Cokes Theater.

JEFF: We used to do all the clubs that were happening back then.

BLUE: And your named was spelled like, Red Cross, then right?

STEVE: Yeah, the American Red Cross.

BLUE: What happen, you had a law suit or something?

JEFF: You can’t really just go ripping off peoples names.

STEVE: It’s like my brother’s name, Jeff, you know there’s other Jeffs, he’s ripped them off (laughter).

BLUE: What about the Dead Kennedys?

JEFF: There was never a project or organization called Dead Kennedys.

STEVE: There were many Kennedys that were dead at the time (laughter), so they copyrighted the concept I guess (ore laughter).

BLUE: Okay, so you just changed the “K” and the other “D”?

JEFF: We got radically sued. You go to court so you can lose like hell.

STEVE: Yeah, I used to go into court crying a say I couldn’t finish my homework and my grades were getting really bad.

JEFF: We ended up owing them $3,000 in damage, so we had to pawn all our equipment, but we were okay, we bounced back.

STEVE: Yeah, we bounced back, and jumped into prostitution (laughter).

BLUE: Actually, you’ve been progressing every since?

STEVE: Yeah, I think the prostitution period really… (laughter).

JEFF: I liked the prostitution, we had two girls in the band…

STEVE: See, when that happened we were like, what are we going to do, so we decided on pimping. We got two chicks and put them in the band as a really good cover up.

STEVE: I like lost all my equipment and I was 13 too. They were coming down hard on me.

JEFF: We thought they wouldn’t pick on us cause we were just little kids.

JEFF: That was Jan and Tracy.

STEVE: Yeah, Jan and Tracy, and me and Jeff became professional pimps. We didn’t know what else to do with them in their spare time.

JEFF: Yeah, then they started getting too old and we had to ditch them.

STEVE: They started to grow chest hair.

JEFF: So we greased and shaved them, then put them on their way. (laughter)

BLUE: Are these real girls, are they going to be offended if we write this?

JEFF: No, you can write it, they’ll probably be offended.

STEVE: I think they told their parents by now. (laughter)

BLUE: So where do you guys live? Where do you hang out mostly?

JEFF: I try to hang out in North Hollywood as much as possible.

STEVE: I’ve been staying in Shirley McClain’s guest house lately.

BLUE: Aren’t you guys from Hermosa Beach somewhere?

STEVE: Our guitars are from Hermosa Beach (laughter). It’s a small island in the South Pacific. It’s getting hard, we’re having a hard time commuting back and forth to rehearsal in Hermosa Island. A lot of people get Catalina confused with Hermosa Island, but (laughter)… I’ve been staying in Shirley McClain’s guest house, she lives in Lawndale (laughter), and it’s a really nice pad.

BLUE: I hear Lawndale Rocks!

STEVE: Well, you mean the band or the city?

BLUE: The city.

STEVE: Sort of like the band or the magazine! (laughter)

JEFF: You see, Lawndale was really happening back in the early 70’s when people like Edgar Winters, were going to clubs down there, but it kind of died.

STEVE: The club circuit kind of died in Lawndale. The most incredible landmark was the Robin Trower riot.

JEFF: That was incredible!

STEVE: It was insane. That was like ’69 or ’70.

JEFF: For some reason, they had a strip like Sunset and they had all these major clubs where major acts played and stuff in the 70’s. ROBIN TROWER, EDGAR WINTER…

STEVE: FOGHAT, MOLLY HATCHET, so that’s what influenced us, we came from New Delhi and came to Los Angeles, and hung out in Lawndale and Hawthorne, that’s where our parents lived. But there’s no more club circuit there.

BLUE: Do you guys still live there?

BOTH: Yeah!

STEVE: I’ve been staying in Lawndale.

BLUE: Were you guys in on this Bomp Records movement when they tried to have the Cavern Club and all this 60’s psychodelic stuff?

JEFF: No, we’re just trying to start a punk revival. We’re producing a band called ANARCHY 6 right now. We had to shy away from the 60’s underground, we thought there was no future in the 60’s. We thought the real future was in the 70’s.

STEVE: Especially like the punk rock 70’s.

JEFF: Hardcore punk rock!

STEVE: A lot of people don’t realize that hardcore lives.

BLUE: So you’re really producing a hardcore band?

STEVE: Yeah, ANARCHY 6.

JEFF: We’re kind of like the Rick Rubin, we’re like the Mick Jagger/Keith Richards.

STEVE: We’re kind of like the Glimmer Twins of ANARCHY 6.

JEFF: Of hardcore punk rock.

STEVE: Kevin Flemme, Joe Hardcore on lead guitar.

BLUE: So you lost hop in the 60’s and you’re into the 70’s.

STEVE: See we were in New Delhi when everything was going down.

JEFF: Actually there is no future in the 70’s, we’re going back to the 50’s, cause we feel the doo-wop has been ignored. (laughter) We’re trying to incorporate our REDD KROSS flavoring with doo-wop.

STEVE: Yeah, there’s a lot of poseurs, like SHA NA NA. People just get a misconception of what doo-wop is all about (laughter)

BLUE: But don’t you guys wear, like paisley shirts and striped bell bottoms?

JEFF: no.

STEVE: Some people confuse us with SHA NA NA, cause we wear the gold lame jumpsuits (laughter) but, the thing is our crotches are much larger than theirs. (laughter)

BLUE: How do we tell when you guys are serous and when you’re not?

JEFF: We’re basically always serious.

STEVE: We’re very serious, we don’t joke.

JEFF: We jok…

STEVE: I mean there are times, I say like “knock, knock who’s there?!” You know, SHA NA NA! (laughter) But, our band is very serious ya know, we wouldn’t be telling you these deep inner thoughts about our musi in ou past if I wasn’t serious about it. So…

JEFF: You’re not going to smoke another cigarette, are you?

STEVE: Yes, I’m very serious about it. (laughter)

JEFF: Yes, cancer is very important, it helps build one’s mystic.

BLUE: So your music is kind of like, uh…

STEVE: Like trash.

JEFF: No it’s like THE COWSILLS meets BLACK SABBATH. DAVID CASSIDY meets…

BLUE: It’s not the PARTRIDGE FAMILY meets KISS?

STEVE: It’s kind of like the cast of Three’s Company got a band together, a bad combo of them and the cast of Wonder Bug.

BLUE: Let me ask you about some of the songs on the new record. “Peach Kelli Pop”, what’s this song about?

JEFF: It’s about Public Kelli, she was a character in a Hostess cartoon show in the late sixties. The song is basically talking about L.A.

BLUE: That’s the song that says something about The Rainbow.

JEFF: The song has nothing to do with The Rainbow, the only reason we mentioned The Rainbow is because she was busted for ripping off something at a boutique on Sunset, and she went to The Rainbow and got busted, cause she was trying to ditch the cops.

BLUE: What about “Love Is You”?

JEFF: “Love Is You” is like, about Love is you, no, Love is you…

STEVE: Love is you, no love is you!

JEFF: I guess love is a badf concept and you just go to bed just calling them ‘love’ and they say, ‘no, love is you’ and you say, “no, Love is you”. We live in a society where hate was, like good, and love was bad, and you don’t want to insult anybody for saying that.

STEVE: I didn’t realize that myself.

BLUE: And then “Neurotica”, what’s that one about?

JEFF: “Neurotica” is about being really sane and having a real mellow life.

STEVE: It was sort of inspired by Eddie Van Halen and Valerie’s marraige.

JEFF: We went out with them one weekend and it was just too heavy.

STEVE: Valerie Van Halen has just been blowing minds lately, she actually invented the hammer-on technique (mimics the famous guitar hammer-on technique). That’s what the song is about.

BLUE: What about “Janus, Jeanie And George Harrison”? Who are Janus and Jeanie?

JEFF: Janus and Jeanie, they’re girls and George Harrison.

BLUE: And what do they have in common?

JEFF: God.

BLUE: What about your music, are you more heavy metal, pop or psychodelic?

JEFF: We’re kind of reggae, or doo-wop even. We’re actually kind of heavy metal like EZO.

STEVE: We’re kind of like, if Mick Mars and Linda Grace had babies (quadruplets), that’s like our music.

BLUE: If we did this interview tomorrow, would the answer be different?

JEFF: They’d be exactly the same everytime we do interviews they think we’re joking, but we’re serious, just because we have smiles on our faces.

STEVE: I don’t have to stay in Shirley McClain’s guest house.

BLUE: What’s your favorite band?

BOTH: Salty Dog.

BLUE: What’s your favorite club?

BOTH: Coconut Teazer.

JEFF: Do you have a restroom here?

BLUE: Yea, right around the corner. (Jeff leaves to sink his lemon)

STEVE MCDONALD INTERVIEW

STEVE: Is this the Steve McDonald interview now?

BLUE: Are you the older or younger brother?

STEVE: Younger, Jeff’s ten years older than me, he’s 30. Don’t tell anyone, though.

BLUE: He’s more talented then.

STEVE: I’m more talented, ya know, the gods gave it to me.

BLUE: Has the band always had the same members?

STEVE: Well, I’ve always had the same members on my body. We’ve had quite a few, I already told you about the prostitutes in our band.

BLUE: How many albums do you have?

STEVE: Four, counting EPs and some songs on compilations.

BLUE: How often do you guys rehearse?

JEFF: Hardly at all, it takes some of your soul, everytime you rehearse.

STEVE: It’s like soul-stealing.

JEFF: It’s like cameras and tape recorders.

STEVE: Cameras a like portable soul-stealers.

BLUE: We’re stealing your soul right now.

STEVE: Someone like Ron Keel, they don’t take many pictures of him, see, it’s because he doesn’t have a lot of soul left.

BLUE: Anything else you guys want to say?

BOTH: Be uptight, have a horrible time, quit school, move to… Montclair, and smell the glove.

BLUE: If you’re serious about your life, go see REDD KROSS Sunday, Sept 6 (1987) at the Hollywood Hills Music Festival.

#redd kross #Hollywood #punk rock #glam rock #LA Rocks #guns n roses #80s punk #80s metal #80s music #fanzine

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iwastoldthisisgoodforme · 5 years

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1.9.19

We woke up early to go to Kualoa Ranch for the UTV tour, which we were all excited about, particularly for Jurassic Park. Kat and Ken weren’t joining us for the day. When we got there, of course there was a huge tour bus for Japanese tourists. Most of them were doing the horseback riding or movie tours. Saw a few cuties but they mostly had boyfriends. Once again, saw Minh Tam in the gift shop but didn’t see her after that. For the UTV tour, there was a pretty Korean girl with her mom and some Chinese MILF. The tours split into two groups though so those two went off with the other group.

The UTV tour itself was a lot more fun that I thought it would be (which I was already expecting it to be fun). Every time we passed by another tour group, I would shaka them and they’d shaka/wave back. The others trusted me to drive and we wore face masks (or at least us Asians did) to protect us from the mud. I would lag behind a bit and floor it but if we started going to fast then the engine would start to sputter. The sights were amazing and quite a sight to behold and that was the only time I wish I wasn’t driving. I tried to speed over every puddle I saw which Desmond often egged me on to do. At one point, we got to a river and Desmond egged me to speed through it, which I did and it got us (particularly Desmond and I) soaked. We were all laughing at the ridiculousness of it and since it was a little unexpected. Desmond said I was driving the way he would have. After that point though, since we were all a bit dirty, we didn’t bother trying to stay clean. The tour guide was a very nice lady and took some interesting photos for us. We passed by the river again on the way back and this time everyone prepared their cameras to record the whole thing. We were the only ones that bothered to drive thru it like that. On the way back to the beginning, we had to stay on the side of the road so we would throw the shaka up at people passing by us and if they waved or shaka’d back (they all did), we all went YEAAAHHHHHH and that made everyone (including the other UTVs) all happy and laugh. Truly one of my favorite parts of the trip.

We waited in the cafe area for a little bit where I saw the Chinese MILF and that Korean chick (we did make eye contact a few times) before we decided to head to Kalua for brunch. We picked a place called Cinnamon’s but there was quite a wait so we went to the chocolate factory nearby. The lady gave us a taste testing tour and a lot of the chocolate was really good but my favorite was actually the tea. I thought about getting some for Mikayla but the process was a little complicated and needed honey so I didn’t bother.

We ate at Cinnamon’s and it lived up to the reputation. There were so many options and I wanted to try the loco moco but I had already eaten some elsewhere. The cinnamon buns were really good too. After we ate, we stopped by the chocolate factory again and bought some chocolate and gelato. There were a lot more people this time. I remember one of the other girls had a really nice ass.

Afterwards, we went to Kalua Beach which was recommended to me by Riona. It was a really beautiful beach and not as touristy as Waikiki beach. Desmond, Kristine, and I went for a swim while Vickie and Marvin just chilled and napped. We originally weren’t going to even go for a swim but we waited so long for a parking spot that we went with it. After an hour or so, we decided to head back to their hotel and walk along waikiki beach.

We got to the hotel and washed up a bit before walking along the beach. There was some dance battle going among some locals and some kids were trying to break open coconuts on a spike. This was another one of my favorite moments from the trip since it was hanging around locals and it was very random and spontaneous. The locals were very welcoming and told us not to be scared and invited us to watch so we came down. The only reason we left was cause the sound system broke.

We walked along the beach and saw another luau happening at the aquarium which wasn’t as big as the one we went to. A lot of locals were on this side of the beach compared to the many tourists lining the other side of the beach.

We decided to get some food so we stopped at Maui Brewing Co and had a few beers and appetizers. There was a pool on the roof which we checked out but didn’t jump in of course. Some musicians started playing live music and Marvin requested for them to play “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys. Everyone in the restaurant started singing along, especially this big table of white people.

We decided to get real food at a Japanese food court nearby similar to the one we ate at the first night althought it was a lot smaller. They told me to pick since it was my last night so we ate at a Kushi Katsu place. It was their first time eating this kind of food and they enjoyed it but it was a bit expensive and we were still hungry so we decided to get McDonalds.

On the way there, we ran into some other people from PCE like Nora (who Kristine had a huge crush on) and we went to the Honolulu Cookie company since they were closing soon and we wanted to get some gifts. We wanted Magnolia but since it was closing soon and we still wanted McDonalds, we went to Maccas instead. I got a taro pie and also tried a stroopwaffel McFlurry which I hadn’t seen before.

We didn’t want to walk all the way back so we took an Uber which had to be the most pimped out Uber I’ve ever seen. The dude was even playing Pokemon Go on like 5 phones. After I picked up my stuff, I said goodbye to everyone and rode a bike back to the hostel and briefly spoke with Max and Roan.

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cinematicallusions · 7 years

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A Quick Essay on Power Rangers (2017)

Power Rangers was a movie I was going to see regardless of anything - it is not problematic like the live action Ghost in the Shell, which simultaneously is problematically racist and ruins my childhood - the original MMPR is already so campy, cheesy, and racist that anything with a modicum of common sense would be a better film*. With moral quandaries nonexistent, I was free to enjoy the movie, Krispy Kreme product placement and all.

Let’s also be clear of another thing - Power Rangers isn’t about to win any awards. I am not watching this movie to gain a deeper understanding of myself or to appreciate the craft of filmmaking. I am here to see giant robots fight giant monsters and teenagers with attitude fight an evil alien sorceress.

Spoilers for Power Rangers below, if you care about such a thing:

The movie starts off at 100 MPH as we find out that Bryan Cranston was the original red ranger and as such the Power Rangers were the ones who called down the Chicxulub meteor that killed off the dinosaurs and put Rita into stasis. It’s a common opener to start off action films with an Action Prologue, and this one is so over the top I’m on board and ready for the rest of the ride.

The movie then turns into a Breakfast Club / Stranger Things self-aware mashup: Jason Scott (Dacre Montgomery) get sent to detention*** where he has his meetcutes with half the members of the future rangers (there’s a nice trope-defying stand-off where he beats the class bully for picking on Billy).

Right about here is where it got nostalgic for me, Jason rides his bike to his (new) friend’s house, they do some science in the basement, “borrow” mom’s van and go exploring - basically what my teenagehood was like, right down to the van!*****

Most teenagers feel alone and powerless in that time of their life; how good it must feel to meet others that feel that way and talk about running away from it all - or even better, getting the power to change that feeling. Giant robot powers notwithstanding…

The movie begins to lag in the middle, with a lot of flip-floppy character confrontation - Jason and Zordon butt heads (figuratively) and some needless drama - but the last half hour of the movie begins, which is where most of the budget was spent and for what we have been waiting: the power rangers in action.

Elizabeth Banks must have had an absolute blast playing the over-the-top Rita Repulsa, screaming out winner lines such as “Make my monsters grow!” and “Crush them!”

The Zords come out guns blazing to the power rangers theme song, there’s some crazy karate fighting versus the putty patrol, the Zords combine into a giant meka and pimp-slap Rita into outer space. Love it.

What the movie did do well was representation. The black ranger was an Asian actor (Ludi Lin) who (CRAZILY) spoke English well (what!), was bad at kung-fu (what!), and in what was apparently too hard for the Iron Fist series, spoke Mandarin well. The Blue Ranger was on the spectrum, but not typecast as a Rain-Man-esque savant. Both the Pink Ranger (Naomi Scott) and the Yellow Ranger (Becky G) were women of color - and that’s the one of the messages the original power rangers show meant to convey, albeit hilariously misguided - that together, because of our diversity, we are strong.

Additional Thoughts:

Regarding Stranger Things: It’s funny that this 2017 movie is reminiscent of Stranger Things, a 2016 show that is made to be reminiscent of 80s-90s movies/tv shows - of which Power Rangers was. This idea of kids riding bikes, exploring and finding supernatural things, hanging out with girls...Ah, to be young again!

Regarding the Krispy Kreme product placement: Yes it is blatant, but consider this: what other major food chain could have been there? Mcdonalds/Burger King/Starbucks would break the fourth wall (too obvious), and Krispy Kreme is the right amount of familiarity and those-are-still-around incredulity. Imagine if Goldar destroyed an In-n-Out, we would have nuked that a-hole.

* After all, when the original had a black actor playing the black ranger and an Asian playing the yellow ranger and the actor of the blue ranger being picked on for being gay the only place to go is up**...

** that being said, it is AMAZING how intolerant the 90s/00s were. Can you imagine the Juggernaut Bitch! Video coming out today? Those guys would get ax-murdered by SJWs

*** during an incident where his fellow bro jerked off a cow to climax, lest we forget****

****Also, Jason’s dad is played by Roy from the Office, which is very fitting

*****the van not making it past the train is a nice twist to the car-racing-towards-a-perpendicular-train-and-making-it-just-in-time trope that we see all the time, most recently in Logan which funnily enough came out a few weeks before. Two car-vs-train sequences two weeks apart.

#Power Rangers #MMPR #Ludi Lin #Bryan Cranston #Elizabeth Banks

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silver-palette · 5 years

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NCT 127 – “Neo City: The Origin” in San Jose

5/9/19